Ovedhe Jerry

Ekpan community in Uvwie local government area of Delta State was yesterday thrown into Crisis over IPMAN election leadership tussle.

The community which has been peaceful for over eight months now after a long leadership tussle was thrown into pandemonium as supporters of Comr. Zino Onaemor and Comr Ben Jones allegedly clashed in the community shooting sporadically in the air.

While briefing newsmen on the situation of the community, the Chairman of Ekpan community, Barr. Innocent Onyekachi Akpotedja- Adjenughure, attributed the resurfaced Ekpan community crisis to the leadership tussle of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) election.

He said, “When we dig deep into the problem, we discovered that the IPMAN issue is affecting the community. I think, the IPMAN activities should be separated from the community affairs in order for peace to reign in the community.

“Every disagreement we have seen so far bowls down to the IPMAN election. The influence of opinion leaders who seems to be supporting one side or the other are dividing the community. I didn’t invite the Army or the Police to the community, I only made a report to the DPO of Ekpan Police station to inform him about the crisis.”

Barr Akpotedja- Adjenughure also added: “When we sense that there will be a resurfacing of the crisis, we called a Stakeholders meeting which the local government Chairman and other major personalities within the community were in attendance and advised that let all star taco within the community remains the same. But am so surprised to hear that the crisis has resurfaced again.

He however advise everybody residing in the community to remain calm, peaceful and orderliness, noting that anybody who foment trouble will arrested and handover to the police or other security agencies.