By Francis Sadhere
Concerned about the unending crisis in Ekpan community, the commercial nerve centre of Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State, the Centre For Peace and Environmental Justice, CEPEJ, a non-governmental organization residing in Ekpan, has given reasons why they were trying to bring back the peace to the crisis ridden community, saying that the community plays host to a lot of companies in the Local government area and therefore, cannot be allowed to continue in crisis.
The National Coordinator, CEPEJ, Comrade Sheriff Mulade who stated this in Warri during an interview with our correspondent in the his office yesterday said that there were a lot of factors that were contributing to the unending crisis going on in the community, calling on all stakeholders to come out with a sincere heart with a view to ending the crisis.
“The Center For Peace and Environmental Justice, CEPEJ, is embarking on peace process in Ekpan community where we reside. We decided embark on this peace process because we discovered that the Ekpan crisis is off and on and a lot of stakeholders have intervened ranging from government, security agent, community leader and the palace. But despite all these interventions, the crisis has continued to linger,” he said.
Comrade Mulade said that in trying to bring back the peace to the community, the centre has liaised with security agencies, government, the community leadership and the palace, noting that all will be invited to a round table to discuss the issues that are making the crisis to resurface each time it has been resolved.
He identified political interest, individual interests and traditional interest as some of the reasons why the crisis has continued to linger, stressing that unless all the interest groups come together and sit down in a roundtable and discuss all the issues responsible for the crisis, the crisis will continue to rock the community.
He said, “Ekpan is a community that is very blessed by God. It plays host to a lot of corporate organizations and if there is any crisis in Ekpan the whole of Uvwie local government area will be in crisis too. As an organization that is advocating for peace, we have carefully identified some root causes of the crisis in Ekpan and this is why we want to embark on this project.
“This project is a big project for us because we reside in Ekpan. We have discovered that the crisis in Ekapn has tripartite interest namely, political, traditional and individual interest. To be able to resolve this issue, we have to invite all the interest groups to a round table where we will discuss what the problems are and recommend solutions. And at this point we expect government at all levels, ranging from the Local Government Area to the state, to be sincere and honest about resolving this crisis. The centre is embarking on this project to find a lasting solution to the crisis in Ekpan.
“This program is the brain child of this organization and it is devoid of any political, traditional our individual interests. We are only bringing all the stakeholders to a round table. So all stakeholders should be free to express their minds and put all the issues on the table so that we will be able to find a lasting solution to this problem.”
He therefore, assured all the stakeholders in Ekpan community that the peace process they are embarking on is the devoid of any political, traditional or individual interests, saying the peace process was a brainchild of the organization as nobody has a hand in the process, advising all stakeholders to come and bear their minds on how to resolve the lingering crisis in the community.
“We are already on the process of reaching out to all stakeholders involved. We have engaged the acting head of the Ekpan Community who was a former Attorney General of Delta State, Barrister Victor Otomievwo. We have also reached out to the community leaders, the palace, the local government council area, schools, corporate organization, business investors, security outfits and even the market women and traders living within the vicinity of Uvwie local government area.
“We strongly believe that this is one of the best things that will happen to this community and we want to urge them to embrace this program. We also urged them to drop all interest on the roundtable talk because we cannot continue to be in crisis. We must embrace peace now because if we leave it for later, it will be too late,” Comrade Sheriff added.
