By Our Correspondent
FORMER Delta State Commissioner for Environment, Chief Frank Omare has urged the people of Ogbe-Ijoh and Aladja to embrace the committee set up by the State Government aimed at resolving the age long communal dispute in the two communities just as he denied sponsoring the Niger Delta Avengers to wipe out the Aladja people.
Speaking to our Correspondent on the allegations by an online reports that he is a major sponsor of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), Chief Omare said he was being blackmailed.
The former Commissioner posited that the time was now for the two communities to sheath their weapons and allow peace to reign, saying war favours no one.
He lamented that in the past his people in Ogbe-Ijoh were killed, but said that will not encourage him to sponsor NDA against the people of Aladja.
He said; ” In the past, people were killed, all the houses were burnt, it was by the special grace of God that the Ogbe-Ijoh community came back. It is our responsibility to continue to promote peace because the parcel of land, we did not come into this world with land, or anything and you did not come with any land, you came alone and you will certainly go back alone. If you don’t have the capacity to appreciate God by living together, there is a problem.”
“Niger Delta Avengers, we all know just came out few weeks ago and their agitation were very clear but it is economic sabotage and of course, everybody is involved. Critical stakeholders in this country, in government can never be part in encouraging what they are doing or be a supporter,” he told our Correspondent.
He added that: “By being a member of government clearly I am a critical stakeholder because I am a player in politics, when people want to achieve their aim, severally the Nigerian Army in Ogbe-Ijoh, the headquarters of Warri South-West had always been withdrawn; Nigerian Army will withdraw the Army from Ogbe-Ijoh and when this crisis started that is the only time when they are withdrawing them (Army); when there was no crisis as headquarters of a local government, the Army are always there, since the crisis started today they will withdraw them, tomorrow they will bring them .Those are just mere allegations or whatever. He has to linked me and has to come to proof it, so I have already formally reported the matter to the security agencies to let him formally invite him and proof my link. Two communities were fighting in less than one week, Aladja has come to Ogbe-Ijoh burnt houses, they have killed people, they injured people and the records are there.”
“The other day, they came four times to attack Ogbe-Ijoh, my father, my mother are buried in that town, I am from that place. We have been going around calling Army, Police to please come in and resolve this matter. Moreso, the Governor in the state had set up an Inquiry giving them specific terms of reference to a rightful solution, why can’t in our own little capacity protect and make sure that is achieved”.
“It is condemnable, I am not part of whatever he is talking about or do I have the capacity of funds to sponsor the Niger Delta Avengers? At what point in time? Everybody is praying that look this thing is happening can be resolved and let everybody know the consequence of it. We have the Deputy Governor, are our people fools?”
He also said;”If people want to promote crisis but the issue of Ogbe-Ijoh and Aladja, they should not drag the Urhobo and Ijaw ethnic nationalities to it. We should be very careful though those who are sponsoring this irresponsible, misleading information. The Urhobo and Ijaw ethnic nationalities, we have lived peacefully together for years. Yet Ogbe-Ijoh and Aladja over 20 years, over 2 decades, they have been fighting, killing people; it is an issue and the government is looking into it so that the matter can be resolved and the committee that was set up is headed by a very renowned Professor in this state, in this country; every attack that Aladja had done against Ogbe-Ijoh people is recorded in Nigerian Police with the SSS and of course the SSS and Police will clearly state the kind of role I have played as a member of Ogbe-Ijoh and as a citizen of this country and as a government official whether you are in government because government is for everybody; if today anything goes wrong, it is not only me that will suffer, it is everybody. Ogbe-Ijoh you can imagine the humiliation in the headquarters of Warri South-West local government. 95% of the workers came from Aladja because there are a lot of accommodations there, they have driven all of them away, nobody passes Aladja to Ogbe-Ijoh. In fact if you are taking corpse for burial through Aladja they will collect money, we have been suffering this for the past five or six years. Please let us preach peace, I don’t just know why people feel they can go to social network and say what they cannot even defend”.
“He is just out to blackmail me because I am an Ogbe-Ijoh man. In fact from the war strategy but I will never promote my people, Ogbe-Ijoh people and lead them to a war because war favours no one, The only thing we hear, today they have withdrew Army from Ogbe-Ijoh and as I speak to you there is no one Army in Ogbe-Ijoh, there is no one in Ogbe-Ijoh but they have battalion of Army in Aladja, is that not a clear indication of who is behind what? I am just a peasant politician who is thriving or whatever and all to be. Aladja had a Commissioner, has a member in the House of Assembly by themselves. Kefas wanted to resolved it, Aladja refused. Ibori wanted to resolved it, Aladja refused. Uduaghan wanted to resolved it, Aladja refused. Okowa is resolving it now and they are refusing.”
“He is a merely blackmailer. I know I have a history of making things happen by way of promoting peace. I condemn the crisis going on between Aladja and Ogbe-Ijoh and I believe the government of Delta State under the leadership of Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, who has already set up a committee to resolve it will resolve it, nobody should deceive anybody. The blackmailing is coming from Aladja and that is the position of the matter and we will continue to support the Governor to resolve this problem. This land you are talking about is less than 1 Km/5km, why do we have to kill ourselves? I am not scare of any blackmail; this will come and proof to the Nigerian security agencies the link that he is establishing on his report. He called himself a reporter. A top government official in Niger State asked him to come and collect money to resolve an issue and he was arrest in Niger State, the records are there. If I am a financier of Niger Delta Avengers, what will it take me to overrun Aladja. If I am the sponsor of Niger Delta Avengers, I would have sponsored my community against Aladja and Aladja would have been a leveled ground but that is a satanic approach, I don’t have that kind of capacity, I don’t have that kind of heart, I don’t have that kind of skill or whatever. Yes, I am a member of Ogbe-Ijoh, my father and mother were buried there. I have my relatives there, my people are there and that is why we are promoting peace between the two communities,” he said.
