Tension Brews In Warri Over Whereabouts Of Two Abducted Ijaw Youths

Release our boys dead or alive – Opuede community chairman  

Palpable tension is brewing in oil rich Warri, Delta State over the alleged abduction of two Ijaw youths from Opuede community, Gbaramatu Kingdom by armed men suspected to be youths from Aladja community.

The victims simply identified as Solomon Ikoto, and Samuel Ebimajor  were reportedly seized along Ovwain River on their way back from Ovwain-Aladja to Ogbe-Ijoh market where they ply their trade as boat riders.

Ovwain-Aladja and Ogbe-Ijoh people are currently at dagger drawn over protracted boundary dispute.

However, following the development, fear heightened on Saturday in the area as local sources confirmed that the middle-aged aged youths, who hail from Opuede in Gbaramatu Kingdom and Egbema communities in Warri North Council Area respectively had been allegedly killed by their captors who abducted them Wednesday, last week.

Chairman of Opuede community, Mr. Williams Tortor who confirmed the alleged abduction of the youths, however appealed to the leadership of Aladja to prevail on their youths to release the abductees unconditionally, expressing fears however that they meant have been killed.

According to him, whether dead or alive the corpses of the youths should be release for burial, warming however that extending the crisis to all Ijaw communities would spill doom for the warmongers.

Tortor who also appealed to the state government to immediately arrest the situation, told newsmen on Saturday in Warri that allowing the Ogbe-Ijoh/Aladja aged-long communal crisis to spread to Gbaramatu kingdom and other Ijaw communities would further worsen the already bad situation.

He said that the development was capable of snowballing the crisis into a major intra communal war between Ijaw and Urhobo people.

“Gbaramatu people are not part and parcel of Ogbe-Ijoh/Aladja dispute. We have never be part of the crisis, and we don’t support any community against the other.

“We have been playing the peaceful role of good neighbours but we have never being involved so why should they extend their crisis to us by abducting our boys.

“We are appealing for their unconditional release dead or alive, we don’t want further trouble so that the issue doesn’t escalate more than it is now.

“If they have killed them, let them release their corpses but if they are alive they should please release them unconditionally, Tortor said.

He reiterated that Gbaramatu communities or any other Ijaw community within Warri metropolis have never taken side over the Aladja/Ogbe-Ijoh land dispute, attributing the peaceful role played by Gbaramatu Kingdom when Urhobo Progressives Union, UPU, Youth Wing issued ultimatum to Ijaw people residing in Udu to quit the area sometime ago as an indication that Gbaramatu was not taking side in the crisis.

Meanwhile, Ijaw Youth Council, IYC Gbaramatu Clan chapter has given the captors 48-hours ultimatum to release their victims saying that abduction of Gbaramatu indigenes could have been done mistakenly.

“We see the abduction of our youths by Aladjans from the purview of mistaken identity and expect the leadership of Aladja to prove us right by releasing our boys to us alive within the next 48 hours, starting from this minute.

“But if they have unfortunately murdered them, we reiterate that their corpses be released to us for proper burial rite within the said time frame.

“Aladja youths should not spread the war to cover for all Ijaw people by killing any body that is from Ijaw ethnic extraction, as we are aware that a boy from Egbema Kingdom was massacred in cold blood by same Aladja youths in the course of this crisis which has already made the scope of the unfortunate crisis a bit too wide.

“We are not at war with the Aladjans in any case. But this will not break our spirit of oneness both in good and bad times; a trait from our ancestors. For Ijaw is one and our oneness is Ijaw”, the statement signed by Messer Godstime Ayetan, Godswill Doubra Wuruyai, and Frank Ekpemupolo said.