•Delta SSG, community leader trade words
The communal crisis at Ekpan in Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State has escalated because top government officials have been taking sides, it was learnt yesterday.
The head of the community, Chief Newton Agbofodoh, who spoke with our reporter on the lingering crisis, also denied reports of deaths during last Thursday’s shootout in which his son, Kingston, was reportedly kidnapped.
Agbofodoh said the genesis of the crisis was the refusal of some people to vacate office for new officials after the expiration of their tenure as Community Liaison Officers (CLOs) in some companies operating in the community.
The community leader accused the CLOs of using their closeness with senior government officials, including the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Ovie Agas, to terrorise the community.
But responding on phone to Agbofodoh’s allegations, Agas asked rhetorically: “Did you ask him about his role in the attacks?”
He added: “What is his role in the attacks? You would have asked him. You said you’re a correspondent; you should do your investigative journalism. The man you are talking to, your source, the man that is giving you the story, you’ll need to investigate him. What is his role? With due respect to you, I am a liberal person. I am driving. Let me read your message. I’ll talk to you later.”
The SSG pledged to call back later because he was driving.
Agbofodoh said the SSG’s alleged interference in the community’s affairs worsened the crisis, adding that another government official was said to have masterminded the shootout and the kidnap of his son.
He said: “What has been happening in Ekpan community has to do with the choosing of CLOs. The community resolved sometime ago that CLOs should stay (in office) for just three years to represent the community.
“When the tenure of the Napoleon Ifie and the others expired last year and we gave them a letter that their tenure had expired – for which offices other persons had been recommended to take over – he (Ifie) ran to the government because he has a friend in the government. He’s a friend to the SSG.
“The CLO issue is purely a community matter, not a government matter. Even if you are a ruler and you want to influence some decisions, you have to lobby.”
“The SSG, without calling the community to a meeting, wrote straight to the company that all the CLOs who had been asked to leave should resume work immediately and those the community already recommended should leave the place.”
On last Thursday’s shooting, Agbofodoh said: “The government is taking sides on this issue because the person at the forefront of this crisis, holding people up and down, to whom the Area Commander has given about two pick-up loads of policemen to arrest the residents, is claiming to be an S. A. to the governor.
“He is well known for such roles… But what he is telling the people is that he is doing this on behalf of the governor; that’s what he tells whoever cares to listen. That’s exactly what he did last Thursday when he said they wanted to overthrow the community’s leadership.
“At exactly 6:25 (am or pm not indicated) last Thursday, they started shooting. If it was not an arrangement, how would the radio start announcing it immediately, that ‘there’s trouble in Ekpan community, there’s heavy firing in Ekpan community?’ It went on till 7 o’clock. It was when they had finished shooting and were going out – about the time my son was going to work – that was when he was kidnapped.”