Category: Niger Delta

It is nearly two years since Cadet Godwin Ezebri died in the South American city of Panama, on June 7, 2013. The 27-year-old student of Gdynia Maritime University, Poland was on practical sea experience training aboard a maritime vessel when he died suddenly in a mysterious circumstance.

His remains have been subject to several tests and autopsies, yet the circumstance surrounding the young cadet’s death aboard the MV Green Guatamala, a Bahamas-registered vessel owned by Green Reefer, has remained a mystery and source of conjecture between his family, the Amnesty Office and the management of the contractor who handled his placement and owners of the vessel.

The result of an autopsy conducted shortly after his death was rejected by the family. The coroner report, signed by Dr Omar A. Zapata, Coroner Coordinator of Legal Medicine and Forensic Science Institute in the Province of Colon, indicated that he died abruptly, ostensibly “of cardiac origin”.

But the Ezebri family expressed reservation about the report and demanded that a fresh autopsy be conducted to ascertain the true cause of their member’s death. It was gathered that the family’s suspicion stemmed from the deceased’s communication with them before his unfortunate and sudden end. A source said merely hours before the incident he spoke with his younger brother, inquiring about how he could remit some money home.

Besides, the report of the crew master of the vessel, Capt L. Sapelevics, indicated that Godwin had indicated his desire to sign off at the nearest port, insisting that Godwin had concluded that he was not suited for the challenges and demand of sea life. Sapelevics further stated: “Two hours before his death the master of the crew ordered a check of his blood pressure, pulse and temperature which were all normal.”

But two hours after he was reported ‘normal’, Cadet Ezebri “slumped and died”. Over a month later, on July 13 of the same year, his remains were ferried to Lagos. The refusal of his family to receive the corpse led to a fresh argument between it and the amnesty office in one front and with the vessel owners on another. The corpse was later deposited at the 68 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital in Yaba, Lagos, where it remained until it was buried on December 5, 2015.

The matter was reported to the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), which in conjunction with the family and the amnesty office carried out a second autopsy. Reputable Anatomic Pathologist, Dr Nicholas Awolola was consulted by the family to lead their team of doctors for the exercise.

But the second autopsy was further bedeviled by fresh controversy over his remains that were repatriated back to Nigeria. It was discovered that key organs and tissues needed for the exercise were not repatriated with the corpse. Several communications led to the return of more body parts in April, 2014, nearly one year after the incident.

However, rather than provide answers to the questions over the cadet’s death, the fresh autopsy opened a fresh can of worms. The report obtained by our Niger Delta Report revealed that the brain, heart and key organs needed to ascertain the cause of death were either missing or in very bad shape.

It stated: “We were expecting the heart, small and large intestine and the brain of the deceased, (either intact or dissected as a result of the previous postmortem examination.” Conversely, the report noted: “that the organs sent consisted of a conglomerate of tissues that had been cut into several small pieces which weigh 20.3kg).”

More damning was the observation: “That all these organs could not have come from the body of Late Godwin Ezebri as, at most, the expected organs should weigh between 8 – 10kg.”

Besides, it noted that tissues as the lungs, liver and kidneys that were seen in the body of the deceased were also included in the package sent.

“That tissue such as the human spine was included in the package even though there was no evidence of trauma to the body and no indication that such tissue was taken for analysis during the first autopsy.”

The report concluded that without the whole heart to ascertain the cause of death, stressing, “after painstakingly extracting heart tissue from the heap of ‘rubbish’ sent from Panama, we were unable to obtain a DNA profile for the tissue. This is possibly due to the effect of the preservative.

“We strongly believe that the heart of Late Godwin Ezebri, 27 years, male was not in the package (sent to Nigeria) which arrived on the 6th of April, 2014.”

Contacted to explain the absence of the vital organs, Green Reefer referred the inquiry to the funeral home in Panama, where the body was embalmed. Documents obtained by our reporter indicated that the General Manager of the home, Mr Glen Hutchinson, explained that the deceased organs and cavity were discovered to be in “first stage of decomposition.”

Apparently unimpressed by the development, the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Mr Kingsley Kuku wrote to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, requesting for “intervention and investigation into the death…”

Kuku, in the letter dated 29th August 2014, requested the ministry to convey to the Government of the Republic of Panama, an official request from the Government of Nigeria, for investigations in the death…and enquiry whey the organs taken from his body were not sent to Nigeria for autopsy.”

Over 15 months after the death of their member, the family received an official condolence message from Kuku. In the letter, the Presidential Adviser expressed suspicion at the cause of death, adding that his office was liaising with NIMASA to ensure actual cause of death.

“I have respectfully pleaded with Mr President to instruct the relevant security and martime agencies, particularly the Office of the National Security Adviser… to comprehensively probe the death with a view to ensuring that justice would be seen to have been done on the matter and to recommend ways of averting a recurrence…”

It was gathered that the head of the amnesty committee also gave scholarship to the younger sibling of the deceased, offering the medical student total sponsorship in a university of his choice anywhere in the world.

But a member of the family told our reporter that the efforts of the Amnesty Office aren’t enough. Our source said in spite of the strong desire earlier displayed by the OSPAND, there is now indication that it has lost interest in pursuing the perceived murder of the young Nigerian.

“They have given us the impression that with the burial of our late brother, they have washed their hands off finding the cause and how he was killed. As grateful as we are for all their assistance and concern, whatever they do would be scanty consolation if they don’t help us get to the bottom of what happened to Godwin,” the close family source lamented.

Besides, our findings showed that the family still await the payment of compensation as indicated in his contractual agreement with the vessel owner and the amnesty office.

Even more painful, as the Ezebri Family waits for justice over the death of the promising 27-year-old cadet, death again visited the family as one of those in the fore of the struggle for justice, Preside Ezebri died January 17.

“The Family is going through hell as we are now, everything is against us but we believe that only God can give us victory.”

Mrs. Comfort Bassey is a widow from Cross River State. Her husband died two years ago leaving her to cater for their two children. To eke out a living, she took to working as a contract staff at the Okomu Oil Palm Plc at Udo in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State. She works as an harvester.

For providence, Mrs Bassey’s children would have been orphaned as she narrowly escaped being killed on the bloody Tuesday inside the oil palm plantation when workers of Okomu were attacked by some youths allegedly of Ijaw extraction in the locality.

Two workers simply identified as Samuel and George were shot dead while Comfort and six other workers were asked to lie down and shot at. They are currently receiving treatment at a private hospital in Benin City, the Edo state capital.

The Okomu workers were victims of a battle between the palm oil company and some Ijaw youths who have asked the company to leave the premises.

The dispute between workers of Okomu and the Ijaw attackers left two dead and seven others hospitalised. The workers are spoiling for a revenge attack to ensure their continual survival in the farm.

Okomu Oil Palm Plc owns vast oil palm and rubber plantations at Udo and it is the largest employer of labour in the locality. Its facilities are guarded by over 120 armed personnel, including men of the Police and the Army. Despite the heavy security presence and supposed cordial relationship between the company and its host communities, the Ijaw youths in the locality have continued to unleash mayhem on the company and its workers.

Last year, about 300 hectares of oil palm and rubber plantation belonging to Okomu Oil were set ablaze. The company management also received leaflets asking it to leave the land or face dire consequences.

It was gathered that some of the attackers were former employees of the company who believed that they were unjustly sacked while another version said the attackers wanted more social responsibility from the company.

A Niger national who escaped the attacked said the attackers numbered over 30 and were heavily armed with dangerous weapons and ammunition.

At the hospital where Comfort and others were receiving treatment, it was a pitiable sight of pain, anguished and confusion. She said she would have stayed away from work that day if the attackers had earlier warned them.

She said: “I have been working since last year. I am a harvester. What happened was that our head man was addressing us on the work we did on Monday. We concentrated on what we were doing and didn’t know when we were surrounded. Others saw us being circled and ran away. We could not run away. They told us to wait and asked us to call others or they would kill us. We lied down and I lost hope in life. I was shot at close range. If they had warned us not to enter the farm again I would not have gone to work that day.”

Another employee, Joseph Darton, was shot on the anus and on both legs.

He said: “This is a gunshot wound. I was shot by Ijaw. I was going to work. They said they came to warn us not to come to work again. They were about 15 and heavily arms. We were 36 workers at the farm at that time.”

“They gather around us but some workers escaped. They said those that ran wanted to go and call security men. They decided to shoot all of us remaining. They shot at my leg after asking us to lie down They fired at us and said: ‘As your people run, we will kill the rest’.”

A soft spoken 30-year old victim, Happiness Asuquo, said she saw hell and had already prayed to God to accept her soul.

An employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said several workers have been attacked in the past but the management usually kept mum about the incidents. He said the killing of the two workers that Tuesday occurred at a place not far from where security operatives are based.

He said: “This matter does not concern us. We are just workers but the Ijaw boys always attack us and leave the management staff alone.

“The boys need something from the management but this Managing Director is too stubborn. The security men on ground have not exchange gunshot with the attackers since trouble started last year.”

“We decided to cry out so that management can do something about these killings.”

Okomu’s Human Resources Controller, Ikponmwosa Osunbor said the company has reported several threats to security agencies but nothing was done to curtail the attack.

He said, “People who went to do their legitimate job were rounded up and brutally beaten. It happened at about 7:30 am. There have been warnings by this group. They have been burning our plantations and we have been making reports to security agency on the need to address the situation. If we know what they want we would have been able to solve the problem. We have letters thrown into the plantation asking us to leave and threat to attack us.

“In November last year, we had a meeting with neighbouring communities and the Ijaw did not send representatives. We have cordial relationship with our host communities. We want an immediate end to the crisis. We are at the mercy of these people. We cannot carry gun or move into the community to fight back. There are security agents around but we don’t control them. They don’t report to us. We have 120 army personnel in our plantation but the boys are still attacking our workers in the bush.”

“Government should provide more security for us. Our fear is that it will not turn into a tribal war.”

Police spokesman DSP Joseph Edogiawerie confirmed the report and said the attack was led by an Ijaw youth, Lawrence Iyambo.

He said: “The report from Iguobazuwa revealed that a group of armed men led by one Lawrence Iyambo of Okomu Ijaw community invaded Okomu plantation and killed two of the company field workers and seven others are hospitalised.

“They have made series of report about threat to attack by these groups. Soldiers are deployed there along with policemen in view of bringing the situation under control and apprehend the culprits. No arrest has been mad for now but results will be achieved.”

Umeh is situated six kilometers from the Bomadi Junction on the busy East/West Highway. Yet this pristine community in Isoko South Local Area of Delta State could not be farther from civilisation. Sitting in an environment that is treacherous, even by Niger Delta’s standard, the odds were hugely stacked against the agrarian community.

The land is marshy and ringed by streams that crisscross farmland and homes. It is a rough, beautiful fertile land where plants thrive and give out bountiful harvests even with minimal efforts by farmers. Fish, especially the catfish and others that relish soft murky waters, thrive in the muddy ponds and streams that traverse the land.

Plantain, palm oil, cassava and others are farmed in Umeh and they yield harvests in abundance. Unfortunately, farmers don’t get the financial reward commensurate with their work and yields from their farms because they can’t evacuate produces. The land is locked and there are no access roads to and from the community. Traders who brave the hostile paths to the community pay the farmers pittance that barely covers the locals’ cost of production. The traders on the other hand go through troubles and sometimes suffer loss when the trucks break down.

The President General of the community said they were “like people inside an enclave, not just an enclave, but an interior enclave inside an enclave.”

However, that changed last Saturday, February 14, when Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan inaugurated the 7.1km road built by his administration to link the community to the East-West Highway and by extension, other parts of the state and beyond.

The spectacle, celebration, fanfare and the tumultuous reception that heralded the governor’s arrival, more than speeches, expressed the heartfelt joy and appreciation of the community, its monarch and leaders.  An orator in the community aptly captured the feeling of the people when he remarked that the “governor has not only written his name in gold, but in indelible ink, in the folklore of Umeh.”

Political parties’ affiliations were relegated to the background as candidates of the main opposition All Progressive Congress (APC) in the area and other parts of Isoko land, including supporters of the Isoko South House of Assembly aspirant, Hon Onwo joined in welcoming the governor to the community.

Hundreds of singing and dancing women, youths and the elderly gaily dressed and armed with white handkerchiefs, turned up at the Umeh Junction in their numbers to welcome the man who the traditional ruler, Odiologbo of Umeh, HRH Odiri Ambrose Oweh ‘installed’ as the Ovie-Elo Umeh (Light of Umeh Kingdom) to the town.

A very long line of school children – stretching up to a kilometer – hedged sides of the road. They waved excitedly at the governor as he and his team drove through the brand new road from the junction were the first ceremony and inauguration was held. They carried placards with various inscriptions eulogizing the strides of Governor Uduaghan in their community. The main markets in the town and business places were shut down and a public holiday was declared in the town.

For several minutes all protocols were suspended as the governor joined the women and youths, singing and dancing with white kerchiefs flying all over the air. The singing and dancing continued as the governor made it to the rostrum for his address, which he started with a Christian song, ‘Come and see what the lord has done’. As if on cue, the gathering picked up the chorus and the carousing continued for several more minutes.

“Today is a very special. I don’t usually celebrate St Valentine’s Day, but today I decided that I must be here in a community that I love and that loves me,” the governor said in an emotion-laden voice.

He described the joy in the air as “spontaneous inside and outside”, noting that only those who knew the condition of the road on which the people stood that sunny Valentine Saturday would appreciate the joy and feeling of the Umeh people. “If you hadn’t been here you cannot understand.”

Governor Uduaghan described the story surrounding the road construction as fitting for a book. He said although the Umeh road is neither the longest nor most expensive road project embarked upon by his administration, it ranked as perhaps one of the most significant.

He explained that it was an indication of what youths could achieve if they channel their time and energy into meaningful engagements. He explained that the deplorable state of the road and the fate of Umeh community were brought to his attention through Facebook, the social media site, where a young indigene of the community, Mr Duncan Afahokor started the ‘Umeh Needs Road’ campaign.

He recalled that Afahokor averred that the community could be the food basket of not just the state, but the region and beyond if it had a road for farmers to evacuate their produces. “When I heard that I was attracted and when I came into the forum and we engaged in discussion until about 3am.”

The governor was so moved by the debate on the UNR forum that he left as early as 8am the next day  in search of the ‘forgotten community’. “What I saw was terrible. I drove a Jeep (SUV) but we did not get up to one kilometer because of the condition. So I came down and we walked for up to five kilometers before we got to the first house.”

The owner of the house, a pregnant woman, who was sitting in front of her house when the unknown visitors came, abandoned the pot of soup on the fire and fled into the bush. She later told our report that she was frightened by the unusual sight of a man (the governor) and security details.

Uduaghan recalled with a smile: “She had a pot of banga (palm oil) soup on the fire; she had made eba and was cooking the soup when she fled. So we sat by the fire and helped her finishing the cooking. As we were doing that her son (a child of barely three years) came and joined us. That was the day I had a spiritual connection with the road and I was determined to complete it.”

The determination of the governor to complete the road was put to test by the ill-fated flood that ravaged part of the country in 2012. The contractor had gone far with the construction when the flood came and erased all that they had done. The stone base and other work done were washed away along with a big culvert built over one of the stream.

At that point it seemed that the Umeh people were destined for perpetual isolation from civilization. But rather than being discouraged, the disaster strengthened the government’s resolve. It not only went ahead, but redesigned and increased the scope of work, changing the big culvert to a bridge.

It was against the backdrop of the challenge that the Umeh monarch described project as a miracle. He said it looked like a mirage and hopeless dream until its completion.

For his part, Duncan Afahokor, who started the UNR Forum, said the forum was informed by the Governor’s programmes, particularly the Delta Beyond Oil initiative, which lays big emphasis on agriculture. He said in view of the community’s huge agriculture potential in the area, he decided to draw the attention of the governor to his community. “We keyed into it and here we are.”

Afahokor particularly commended the governor for the transparent way the project was executed, stating every process from the bid to mobilization and payments to the contractor were revealed to the community through the UNR forum. The openness, he said, enable all stakeholders to get actively involved in the supervision and monitoring of the project from the day the first equipment reached the site to the completion.

He said the road would encourage the Umeh people to contribute to Uduaghan’s effort to diversify the state economy and commended him for bringing government closer to the people. “This experience taught me that if people constantly engage, it will produce positive result.”

Already, he disclosed that over 300 members of cooperative societies are benefiting from the state microcredit scheme. The beneficiaries had earlier been challenged by Uduaghan to expand their businesses and grow their yields, assuring them of firm commitment and support.

Earlier in his remarks, the Commissioner for Works, Hon Funkekeme Solomon said the project was one of four key programme of the ministry under the Uduaghan administration, which he disclosed had constructed over 3,000 kilometers of road as part of its Rural-Urban Renewal, Access to Farm and Integrated Rural development programmes.

“What you are seeing,” Funkekeme said, “is the result of responsive governance. The contract was awarded in 2011 but the flood of 2012 washed off everything. We were not deterred but started from beginning; contract was reapproved and reviewed upward.”

An indigene of the community, Mr Festus Edoreh told Niger Delta Report that the gift of the road was more than enough for the community, stressing that it has given inhabitants the tools to empower themselves and be prosperous.

Dressed in flowing grey agbada and beaming with pride, Edoreh recalled: “Sometimes ago when I came to bury my late father, I couldn’t even drive to my town because there was no road. I and friends, well-wishers and others who came parked far away and made the long journey on motorcycle and other means to the burial site,” the civil servant told our reporter.

It was not just the ‘gift’ of the Umeh road that excited the people; the community’s school has also received a massive facelift. The dilapidated, dwarf building housing the primary school has given way to a storey-building and two blocks of classrooms, which probably explains why hundreds of pupils and students lined up the streets, singing the praise of the governor.

Uduaghan said his first visit to the town led him to see the prevailing “unacceptable condition” of the school. “I immediately gave the go ahead for the contract to build one of our model schools here and to also pull down the old dilapidated building and start a fresh one from the scratch.”

Similarly, the governor announced plan to construct a road to link the community with Uzere community, which borders the community in the north, a move described by Hon Malik Ikpoko, Chairman of Isoko North LG as a final redemption for Umeh and environs.

To further show their appreciation, farmers in community gave huge bunches of plantain, palm oil, fruits, garri and fish to the governor and his entourage. The gifts were so much that it took over three pickup vans to evacuate.

The ceremony was attended by notable Isoko leaders, including the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon Leo Ogor; Delta SSG, Comrade Ovouzorie Macaulay, state commissioners, Mr Charles Emetulu, Mofe Pirah, Powell Tos Ojogho among others and Gen Paul Omu (retd), President General of Isoko Development Union (IDU), the Odiologbo of Olomoro Kingdom, HRM Aghaza I; his counterpart from Oleh Kingdom, HRM AWO Ovhrawa Omogha I and his counterpart from Enhwe.