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Delta Communal Crisis: IYC Accuses Aladja Indigenes Of Fueling Dispute

The group which expressed sadness over the endless communal clash, said the crisis would have long ended by now if Aladja community had accepted the initial decisions of the government and respect laid down rules and regulations till date.
Chairman of local chapter of IYC, Engr. Smart Okosu smart in a statement on Wednesday explained that the Delta state government has one way or the other make move that would have ended this crisis but each time Aladja community and their invested powers disobeyed the existing laws of the government depriving even the military to pass through the only government access road to the head quarter’s of Warri South West.
He said that the Aladja people had refused to accept defeat with existing documents of ownership claim of the generally agreed 289 hectares of land.
Okosu alleged that Aladja people are bent on “wiping out Ogbe-ijoh community from their God given land with their heavy and sophisticated weapons equipped by Uhrobo nation.
“Several security meetings was held with various set of leaders in the government sector to agree on peace accord with documents signed by both parties to maintain peace yet was bridged by the aladja community all the time.
“The community leadership is based on fraud, dishonesty and full of lies. They have no respect for law or authority.
“After all the above mentioned meetings and signatories, several attacks has been made by the Aladja community on security officials and innocent road users and others who are in their compound doing domestic activities e.g Pst Clement Apina and Mr Godwin who was brutally hospitalized just a week ago. These actions of the Aladjans will never contribute to peace in an already tensed environment”, the statement added.
BigPen Online recalls that the crisis degenerated on Monday when suspected hoodlums alleged to be Aladja youths reportedly burnt down a plank house in Ogbe-Ijoh, while Ogbe-Ijoh youths retaliated by killing two persons and also burning houses.
PUNCH had reported that the bandits suspected to be Ogbe-Ijoh youths killed the two persons, bringing the total number of persons killed in the renewed hostility to nine while over 25 persons from both communities are said to critically injured during the clash.
It was learnt that in ensuing melee, some men in military uniforms allegedly stormed the warring community, killing at least seven persons, including a woman in Aladja on Monday.
An Aladja community leader, who did not want his name in print, told the newspaper on Tuesday that seven of the deceased were shot dead by military operatives who drove into the community in military pick-ups, numbering three.
A serving councilor in the Warri South-West Council who is also an indigene of Ogbe-Ijoh community also said that Aladja youths launched the first.