A renewed age-long communal rivalry between residents of
Aladja in Udu Local Government Area and their Ogbe-Ijoh counterparts in Warri Southwest Local Government Area, both in Delta State, Thursday left scores dead, several injured and property worth millions of naira, destroyed.
Aladja, an Urhobo community, and Ogbe-Ijoh, an Ijaw community, have reportedly been engaged in protracted civil strife over land ownership and access to road.
The Nation gathered that youths from Ogbe-Ijoh invaded the community’s Divisional Police Station yesterday, carting away arms and ammunition during the clash which ensued in the morning when some Aladja youths blocked the only access road from their town to Ogbe-Ijoh.
According to reports, residents of both communities abandoned their homes because of the fear that the confrontation might worsen.
Although security agents comprising the Army and the police have taken over the communities to curb the feud, sources said several persons have been injured while two homes: one each in Aladja and Ogbe-Ijoh,
had been razed and car inside the Ogbe-Ijoh property was reportedly damaged.
The Warri Area Commander of the police, Mohammed M’uazu, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP, who confirmed the incident, said an agreement has been reached among the chairmen of Udu Local Government Area, for Aladja; his Warri Southwest counterpart, for Ogbe-Ijoh, and 10 representatives of both communities, had been met.
The Coordinator of the Ogbe-Ijoh Peace Movement, Friday Deinghan, commenting on the incident, said although the crisis started early, it was curtailed through the swift intervention of the Army.
The coordinator said: “The area under contention has been declared a buffer zone, but some persons carried blocks and sand to erect structures there. The evidence is there.
“In the morning, Aladja residents started restricting people from passing to Ogbe-Ijoh; they beat up our people. Before we knew it, they had started advancing to Ogbe-Ijoh, and there were some little skirmishes.
“One man, identified as Freedom from Ogbe-Ijoh, is lying critically injured as a result of the clash.
“But for the quick intervention of the Army, there would have been a total breakdown of law and order in the area,” Deinghan said.
A community leader in Aladja, also giving an account of the incident, said: “Ogbe-Ijoh drew first blood. Their youths held and molested Ajadja women who went farming in the bush.
“In reprisal, our youths restricted their passage through Aladja to their community.
“There has been confusion since then. We can’t give a clear report of casualties now,” the unnamed leader stated.
Meanwhile, the Udu Local Government Area Chairman, Solomon Kpoma, said he was told that even when security forces demarcated both communities, some Ogbe-Ijoh residents still used the waterway to attack Aladja.
“When Ogbe-Ijoh residents were gearing up for this fight, they attacked the Ogbe-Ijoh Police Station, which is very close to Aladja, and carted away their arms and ammunition. With that, the police became helpless. That was when they called for reinforcement.
“The police and the Army formed a barricade to cordon off Ogbe-Ijoh and Aladja and prevented the two sides from attacking each other, but somehow Ogbe-Ijoh residents, from the report I got, came through the river to attack. That was the report this (Thursday) morning,” the chairman added.
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