Thirty-five suspects have recently been arrested through an operation involving security agencies, including the army, air force and the police in Delta state.
The Commander, 4 Brigade of the Nigerian Army Benin, Edo State, Brigadier General Faroque Yahaya, Commander, 61 NAF, Delta, Air Commodore Sani Zakari and the Delta State Commissioner of Police, CP Alkali Baba Usman, jointly addressed the press over the development at the 3 Battalion Barracks, Effunrun, Delta state Friday.
Speaking at the briefing / parade of suspects as well as arms and ammunition recovered during the operations, Brig Gen Yahaya said the operations would continue until the state, which had been notorious for the proliferation of illegal arms and gangster activities, had been purged of the dangerous trend.
Friday’s operation, which yielded the arrests and arms recovery, was carried out in Ekpan and Effunrun communities in Uvwie council area of the state’s.
“In the early hours of this morning. A joint operation codenamed “operation Yankari” was conducted by the military comprising elements from the Nigerian army, Nigerian navy, Nigerian airforce, police and elements from state security service. It was a successful operation to check the spread of small arms in our means. Ammunitions were recovered and suspects were arrested.
“I just want to reiterate that the security in Delta State is determined to rid our communities of illicit arms that are being used to terrorise law abiding citizens in the state. Those arrested will be investigated. The operation would be continuous as we continue to gather information. We advise those trafficking illicit arms to peacefully surround them otherwise we will get them,” he said.
Giving details of the operation, the Delta State Commissioner of Police, Alkali Baba Usman said “It’s an operation carried out because of the incessant complaints of crimes and criminality around the area we have conducted the operation.
“A total of 35 suspects have been arrested. A preliminary screening has taken place. We have been able to identify three and they have been released. The remaining 32 suspects will be taken for further investigation for various offences.
“We have also recovered during the exercise a G3 Riffle loaded with 20 rounds ammunitions and a pistol. We also recovered other incriminating items including ballot papers, but we are yet determined whether they are fake,” he said.
He, however, clarified that the operation was not targeted at individual but criminals while dismissing claims that people’s homes were invaded during the operation that lasted for several hours.
Uneasy calm pervaded Effurun, headquarters of Uvwie Local Government council of Delta state on Friday evening following the invasion of Delta’s Shoprite mall by army of angry youths.
Several shops were smashed and robbed by hoodlums who took advantage of the situation.
Mobile phone shops, eateries and other outlets were smashed while properties worth millions of naira were destroyed.
The incident was first misconstrued as a robbery siege, before normalcy was restored by combined team of police, navy among others.
There were conflicting accounts of the incident that sparked off the mayhem, with the State Police Command blaming the embattled Chairman of the council area, Hon Henry Baro.
Hon Baro, however, traced the incident to the unruly act of a rating of the Nigerian Navy, simply identified as Mouruf.
Baro said he was beaten black and blue by the irate rating, after a vehicle clash, adding that he was a victim of brutality.
He said the situation got out of hand when the military personnel dragged him by the neck while pummeling him with gun. It was his fate, he explained, that infuriated the youths who went on rampage.
“I am a stakeholder in Shoprite; I struggled to ensure its establishment in Uvwie so I would be crazy to try to destroy it,” he added.
While denouncing the activities of the youths, he said he made spirited effort to restore normalcy despite his ordeal.
Nevertheless, Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Celestina Kalu, confirmed that the fracas was sparked off by the altercation between Baro and the naval rating.
She added: “Meanwhile, detectives attached to State CID Asaba have commenced discreet investigation into the incident and any one found to be culpable would be brought to book.”
Tension is now mounting in Ofagbe community, Isoko North council area of Delta state where a reported clash between community youths and Fulani cattle herders claimed a life and left another victim critically injured.
The Nation gathered that trouble started between the two groups when the Fulani herders, who were allegedly armed with dangerous weapons, including Ak47 automatic rifles, tried to forcefully graze their cattle on community farmlands last Sunday.
According to community sources, the incident happened when some youths from the community tried to stop the herdsmen from entering their farms. The sources added that in the process two of their youths were allegedly shot but only one died on the spot while the other was rushed to an undisclosed hospital in Ughelli.
The Nation gathered that one of the victims of Sunday’s clash, who was identified as Jephthah Inibu, was a palm wine tapper.
It was also gathered that the hostile relationship between the community and Fulani herders had lingered over consistent invasion of the community by the cattle rearers who in the past had destroyed crops and other valuables belonging to residents of the community.
A councilor representing Ofagbe ward at the legislative arm of Isoko North LG, Mr. Sakardi Ichakor confirmed the incident to our reporter when contacted. He lamented that the incident has become a seasonal reoccurrence between the cattle rearers and residents of the community who are majorly farmers.
However, when reached for an official confirmation of the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Delta state police command, Celestina Kalu (DSP), said she was only aware that a situation between Ofagbe and Fulani cattle rearers occurred Tuesday.
Police sources who pleaded not to be named in the area also confirmed the development to our correspondent but added that the issue was already being addressed by the state government.
“I spoke with the DPO of the area and he said he had already sent men to the place, but were yet to come back with report,” she said.
There was celebration in oil-rich Kokodiagbene Community in Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State last weekend as the Council Chairman, Chief George Ekpemupolo, inaugurated a N35 million community hall for the community.
Ekpemupolo said the project was part of his administration’s efforts at opening up the rural areas of the oil-rich council and to make life better for their inhabitants.
He said the Kokodiagbene community hall and similar ones executed by his administration were results of tringent management of resources and financial discipline.
The council boss identified the joint-account system operated by most states with their local government councils as the bane of development and prevailing inability of some councils nationwide to pay their workers’ salaries.
He called for the scrapping of such joint-accounts to enable the LGs function as they are expected to.
“The major challenge facing local government is fund. There’re no funds especially with this joint account with the states. If I have my way, I will make LGs autonomous. They should be free to operate on their own.
“If you are a politician and very prudent with the little you have, one can make a difference. We have been able to manage the little resources we have prudently that is why we are not owing workers’ salaries.
“We are not getting money from anywhere. It’s the little we have been able to manage well. My workers didn’t embark on strike because we have been able to meet payment of salaries.
“The FG should make LGs function autonomously as a third-tier of government. The councils should be made autonomous and that is what I’m advocating.”
Ekpemupolo, a younger sibling of former MEND leader, Tompolo, said his management style, which entails prudent management of the council resources and avoidance of wasteful expenditure, enabled him to consistently meet up its obligation to workers.
He appealed to the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government and the National Assembly to make LGs autonomous and insulate them from state governments’ interference.
Ekpemupolo posited that if the councils are made autonomous it would help tackle issue of under-development in the rural areas which councils are meant to serve.
Warri South-West Chairman is one of the few councils in Delta State that are not owing workers’ salaries. Several councils’ workers have embarked on strike due to nonpayment of salaries.
While enjoining the people and residents of the council to remain peaceful, he charged the Kokodiagbene community to protect government projects sited in their areas.
Earlier in his welcome remark, the Chairman of Kokodiagbene Community, Comrade Sheriff Mulade thanked the council chairman for the project while also appealing for the construction of modern market in the community to save the people from travelling over three hours in speedboats to urban centres to purchase food items and other basic needs.
When Niger Delta Report visited the Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara, on Monday, 31-year-old Mrs Onome Akporode, a mother of four, was in pain. There was a sad look on her ebony black face; she seemed to be watching the tragic movie of her journey to the DELSUTH through her mind’s eye. Her endless gaze into space was only punctuated by occasion glance at a space on the white sheet covered hospital bed where her left leg would have been.
A week earlier the young woman was full of life. Those who know her, especially her husband of nearly a decade, Michael Akporode, described her as a hardworking, friendly woman and dream wife. But on the hospital bed, she looked drained and sullen.
“This is a woman who has stuck with me through thick and thin; she has seen by best and my worst, yet she loves me and our four children unconditionally. In between my on-off job as an offshore worker, she has managed and kept the home together. She is always up and doing to provide for the family,” her husband said during an exclusive chat with Niger Delta Report.
On that Monday afternoon, she laid helplessly on her sickbed inside a room at the ultramodern Intensive Care Unit of DELSUTH. She was without her left leg, which had been chopped by dedicated medical personnel who are battling to save her life.
“See what they have done to me; see what they have turned me into!” she muttered in response to our reporter’s greeting.
She had left her home for the Udu Road branch of an old generation bank in Orhumworun, Udu Local Government Area of Delta State, on July 13, without the faintest hint of the cruel fate that awaited her.
•Mr Akporode begging for alms
Her husband disclosed that her mission was to send him money for his upkeep pas he was away in Port Harcourt, Rivers state where he was hustling for a job.
“I was in Port Harcourt hustling for a job and she was the one supporting the family. That day (Monday) she went to pay N5,000 into my friend’s account for me to be managing to buy food and other needs while waiting for the job hunt that took me to Port Harcourt. She had been the one surviving me and the family since my former job ended. All I have achieved, the house I built was with her help,” her husband said with a tinge of regret in his voice.
Mrs Akporode, who spoke for the first time on that Monday, revealed that she had completed her transaction at the bank and was on her way home when tragedy struck. She was just in front of the bank when the accident that crippled her occurred.
Ironically, the harbingers of her misfortune are agents of the bank she was just coming out from. The crazy gang, comprising a bullion van and accompanying police team, was speeding towards the bank against the flow of traffic from the Udu Roundabout. Some of the policemen had their guns poised to fire; others had horsewhips with which they wiped errant drivers out of their path.
An eyewitness said: “The woman was crossing the double lane road and had to stop at the barrier at middle of the road to watch out before crossing the other lane. It was while she was waiting to make the second leg of the crossing that they came.”
A Mercedes Benz 911 lorry was also at the scene. Although the truck was on the right lane, the driver had to choose between running into the police convoy in front of the bank, which may result in him being battered by the police and probably arrested for ‘attempting to hijack the bullion van’ or veering off the road.
The driver had an infinitesimal second to think and he chose option of careering off his path, in a crazy zigzag.
A lucky pedestrian standing a few feet away from the woman on the median saw the danger early enough and dashed out of its way. He told our reporter that his primary concern was to get out of the danger and he didn’t think of shouting out a warning to others on the oncoming danger.
The driver, unable to avoid the convoy, ran his Mercedes Benz 911 truck into the median, crashing into the unfortunate woman and crushing her both legs against the concrete pavement. The sheer impact created a gory paste of flesh, bone and blood out of what used to be Mrs Akporode’s feet.
It was a pathetic sight. The picture of the hapless woman smashed to the floor, blooding oozing from her mangled feet, stupefied and infuriated onlookers. Some made to assist her, others turned against the policemen and the bank officials.
In the milieu, panicky policemen drew out their gun and shot into the air to scare away the angry mob while the woman lay helpless in the pool of her blood. Various sources confirmed that bystanders who made to assist the accident victim and rush her to the hospital were stopped by the policemen.
“They brought out gun and threatened to shoot anybody who came near; they were standing over the woman but refused to help.”
The action of the policemen reportedly delayed the rescue for at least 30minutes, until soldiers were called in from a nearby military checkpoint to calm the situation.
Cost of treatment killing
She was later rushed to the Warri General Hospital, where she was turned away and referred to the better equipped and staffed DELSUTH, Oghara. At the teaching hospital, a spirited battle to save the woman started.
The first battle was to replace some of the blood she had lost. The task was made even more difficult because of her rare and finicky O- blood group, which only accepts donor from similar group.
At the time our reporter spoke with Michael on Monday afternoon, the woman was breathing normally for the first time in seven days. The oxygen mask had been removed from her face and her prospect was brighter. But by Tuesday afternoon when our reporter returned to the hospital, she was again back at the theatre where a delicate operation to save her right leg took place.
It was learnt that a bone transplant was done to replace part of the damage bones on the leg.
However, her jobless husband told our reporter that they were not out of the wood yet. “The cost treatment, drugs and things like the bone that we just bought is exorbitant. The doctors and everybody involved in the case are doing their very best and it is impressive the efforts they are putting in, but without being able to get drugs and everything they need, there is really nothing they can do. And the cost of the drugs is very high.
“As I am talking to you, we have spent about N2million on drugs, blood and other medical supplies”, he said on Tuesday evening.
Earlier on Monday, he explained that he had a list of drugs worth over N100,000 that he had to buy, adding, “I am going to Warri now to get at least two pints of blood. When I was leaving this (Monday) morning, I left N50,000 with my sister, that money has been spent and we are spending more. Every day I spend up to N200,000.
“I cannot leave my wife to die; God has spared her life till now, but I need the assistance of public-spirited persons, organizations and anywhere help can come from,” Michael Akporode added.
The troubled husband lamented that neither the management of the bank nor the police had given help of any sort.
Consequently, he said when he is not with his wife, he and other family members are going from place to place begging for alms. He said the search for money had taken him to churches, market places and even the home of politicians.
“Hon Loveth Idisi is the only prominent person that has assisted us so far. he gave us N50,000 when he came here to see a different patient. He had pity on us when he heard my wife’s story.
“So, it has not been easy and we are doing everything in our power to raise money, because without the money there is nothing the doctors can do; they need the drugs to treat my wife.
“Please help me appeal to the State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa and other public spirited persons all over the country to come to my aid because without money my wife will die. Please tell those that want to help to go to Diamond Bank and pay anything into the account in my name (Michael Akporode) and account number 0067122001,” he added.
IGP gets petition
Delta State based human rights lawyer and National Coordinator of the Centre for the Vulnerable and Underprivileged, Oghenejabor Ikimi Esq, has petitioned the Inspector General of Police over the fate of Mrs Akporode.
Oghenejabor Ikimi, who said he was briefed by Mr Michael Akporode, expressed disgust at the attitude of the bank and the Nigerian Police, when he spoke in a telephone chat with our reporter.
He lamented that the police and management of the bank have not deemed it fit to visit the victim and bear the responsibility for her medical bills, in spite of the devastating effect on her physically and psychological.
Ikimi, in a petition to the Inspector General of Police, while noting that the left leg of the school teacher had already been amputated, Ikimi added that “Doctors are still contemplating on amputating the right leg for her to survive.”
He said: “Our client had spent over One Million Naira (N1million) for the medical treatment of his wife since the 13th day of July, 2015 till the time of putting up this petition, while the owners of the Bullion Van, the 911 Mercedes Lorry and the bank in question including the erring Policemen are silent on the issue.
Police Public Relations Officer, Delta Police Command, DSP Celestina Kalu, who was contacted by our reporter, confirmed the incident, adding that the matter was under investigation.
The police spokesperson however said she was not aware of Ikimi’s petition to the IG.
Our independent investigation revealed that the policemen involved in the reckless driving that caused the accident are facing orderly room trial at the State Headquarters, Asaba, the state capital.
Three other suspects arrested in connection with the accident were said to be awaiting arraignment. The arraignment slated for July 21 could not hold due to the failure of police to conclude investigation.
A source at the Vehicle Inspection Office (VIO) told our reporter: “The VIO has not inspected the vehicles involved in the accident and the Ovwian Divisional Police Officer failed to do the needful which is a proper investigation on the case before taking the suspects to court.”
It was a quiet Saturday evening in Olomoro town, Isoko South council area of Delta State. Everything was as normal until a ‘power drunk’ vigilante head started a little war, which consumed him, got some people killed, properties worth millions of naira destroyed and turned a bubbling community into a ghost town. In this piece, BOLAJI OGUNDELE writes of the ‘little matter’ that set fire on a whole town.
•Relics of the destructions left behind by the vigilante mob
It all started like a mere skirmish; an argument between two men over a young lady who claimed to her boyfriend that the other guy ‘had been toasting’ her, leading the lovestruck boyfriend to sue for a physical combat. In the process, the leader of the town’s vigilante group intervened, bragged a bit about how he was authorised to kill and so on. It sure raised dust and unsettled the environment. However, it has now led to about three deaths and desertion of a hitherto bubbling community.
“The most annoying part of the whole thing is that the two guys who were arguing over the girl took no serious part in this crisis. If the situation had been allowed to take its natural course, I mean if Oyibo (the vigilante head) had not rushed into the argument and started that fight that took his life, probably people living in about five houses away from the scene at Egbo might not have even heard about any disagreement in their neighbourhood; but see now, the entire town has been put to flight because a boastful ignorant man could not stay on his own lane. He had looked for trouble, killed himself, got others killed and scattered the whole town”, said Ajiri Thompson while describing the events of last weekend in his now deserted Olomoro home town in Isoko South council area of Delta State.
He said: “There’s this girl who is befriending a guy, she was once wooed by another guy. So it happened last Saturday that as the girl and this her boyfriend were passing, she saw the other guy pointed him to her boyfriend as the guy, who had been disturbing her. The boyfriend went up to meet the guy and asked why he was disturbing his girlfriend. An argument ensued and people were trying to settle them.
“In this process, the leader of the vigilante group in Olomoro, known as Oyile or Oyibo, came in and laid hands on the guys that he was arresting them. He was taking it beyond normal and this attracted the attention of other people who were drinking around. One of the guys who came to appeal to Oyile to release the guys was one guy called Omo Jesu and because Oyile was holding the guys tight, the people had to loosen his hold on the guys. As his hands fell off the guys he was holding, the scuffling guys left the scene and this angered Oyile. You know he’s the commandant of the vigilante, he just went straight for Omo Jesu, asking why he came to interfere and loosen his grip on the guys. That led to another faceoff, almost getting the two men to the point of throwing punches. People around, however, came to settle the matter and everybody dispersed.”
Meanwhile, all this drama between Oyile and Omo Jesu, according to reports, happened at Doctor’s Bar, where Omo Jesu had gone to eat and he was with some of his friends, one of whom is one guy called Obaro. Oyile sighted all of them. These all happened earlier in the day like 4pm. Later in the day, Oyile returned to Egbo, chanting all manners of threats, calling himself Ogbu, which means killer and threatening that he was going to kill somebody.
“When he was returning there, he had prepared himself, wearing charms and carrying a dagger. By the time he got there, Omo Jesu had left, the first guy he saw was the one called Joshua, he pursued him and stabbed him. They said he continued bragging to be Ogbu, that he was in the mood to kill. At that point, the Omo Jesu guys that he was threatening also got resolute and dared him. He then went after Obaro, fought with him and stabbed him in the stomach. No sooner he was stabbed than Obaro pulled his native shirt, tied his stomach and went after Oyile. As Oyile tried to flee on his motorcycle, Obaro sighted a wood, picked it and used it to hit Oyile. As Oyile fell from the machine, Obaro continued to hit him with the wood until he died.”
Some of the guys with Obaro reportedly took him to a hospital, but by then the whole town had heard about the death of Oyile. This cast a dark pall of fear on the town particularly residents of Olomoro. The vigilante boys launched a reprisal attack against the families and loved ones of Obaro. But before the angry youths got to Obaro’s home, news had reached his family and his mother and siblings took off, leaving his father, who was reported insisted on playing ‘brave heart’ in the face of impending doom.
On getting to the house, the mob descended on Obaro’s father and gave him a sound beating. Then they took him with them to Egbo, the exact spot where his son beat their commandant to death. There, the vigilante squad beat Obaro’s father to death.
After killing his father, the vigilante squad headed back to Obaro’s abode and set it ablaze. That done, they headed for Omo Jesu’s abode with intent to kill him as well, but Omo Jesu reportedly took off before they arrived. The assailants broke into his apartment, parked his effects out and set them on fire. Then they headed for his family house and razed it down as well.
Joshua, the first man to be stabbed by Oyile was next on the list but he also fled before the squad got to him. In his absence, the rampaging vigilantes also levelled his house in anger. Afterwards, they went to Oruabe, one of the three quarters of Olomoro, destroyed the house of the uncle of one other boy, who is a friend of Omo Jesu. All these happened on Saturday.
On Sunday morning, the orgy of vengeance was reenacted; the assailants began to destroy property and shoot sporadically in the air thus creating an atmosphere of chaos. It was at this point that security agents, including the police and the army, decided to intervene. They repelled the rampaging gang and the latter retreated to reinforce and confront the security forces. They were however, overwhelmed by the law enforcement agents and their gang leader, identified as ‘Planner’ and a few other members were arrested.
Authorities of the 222 Battalion, Agbara-Otor, refused to comment on the incident but the Police Public Relations Officer of the Delta State Command, Celestina Kalu (DSP), confirmed that suspects were arrested concerning the unrest but he could not give the exact number of those arrested.
Uneasy calm returned yesterday to Escravos in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State, following Monday night’s reprisal attack by suspected Ijaw militias on Madangho, an Itsekiri community.
At least, two houses were razed when about 30 armed Ijaw youths stormed the community from Gbaramatu, the home of a former Ijaw warlord, Chief Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo).
Two suspects were arrested after the initial attack, in which a 50-year-old security guard was attacked and left in a critical condition.
It was gathered that the reprisal followed “an unprovoked machete attack” on the Ijaw security guard at Kpokpo, the site of the $16 billion gas city project by three Itsekiri youths from Madangho.
An Ugborodo indigene, who spoke in confidence with our correspondent, denounced the action of his Itsekiri kinsmen.
The source said: “The old man was guarding tractors and swamp bogey used to clear the land for the deep seaport when he was attacked by our brothers from Madangho.
“The Ijaw came back in anger and started shooting and burning. Two houses were razed before they left at midnight.
“They came back (yesterday) in the morning. I counted over 30 youths with sophisticated weapons. They shot for several minutes until soldiers came and engaged them in a shootout. That forced them to flee.”
The Commanding Officer of the 3 Battalion, Lt.-Col Ekong Bassey, confirmed the incident.
But he said calm had been restored.
The military spokesman said the matter was being handled by leaders of both communities.
It was gathered that the incident heightened tension between the two ethnic groups, which had been locked in a cat-and-mouse relationship over the $16 billion Gas City and Deep Sea Port project.
Kpokpo, the site of the deep sea port, is a subject of contention between them.
Various sources told our correspondent that the face-off almost degenerated into a war yesterday, following a blockade on the waterways around Gbaramatu by Ijaw militias.
“Boats leaving Ugborodo and other Itsekiri villages for Warri and other upland communities were turned back by Ijaw youths. They also did not allow boats coming into their barricades to Ugborodo,” the Ugborodo indigene said.
Calm was gradually returning to the area yesterday, following the intervention of Tompolo and Itsekiri leaders.
They urged the warring parties to embrace peace.
It was learnt that the peace move led to the arrest of two of the three recalcitrant Itsekiri youths, who allegedly attacked the Ijaw security man.
Irate youths on Tuesday razed down the palace of Ovie of Idjerhe, Ethiope West local government area of Delta State, after the monarch insisted on handing over a suspected murderer to the police.
It was learnt that the youths insisted on meting jungle justice to the suspected murderer whom the youths fingered in attacks on residents.
The Nation gathered that the monarch, HRM Erhiekevwe 1, Ovie of Idjerhe Kingdom and his immediate family are in hiding after he escaped with severe injuries.
But in swift reaction, Delta State Police Command has arrested 12 persons over the mayhem
The Police image-maker in the state, DSP Charles Muka, who confirmed the incident, said security agents have been drafted to quell the crisis
Eight persons, our correspondent gathered, have been shot dead after soldiers stormed the community in a bid to quell the crisis.
However, one soldier has been reportedly killed after youths attacked army personnel deployed to the area.
The Nation gathered that trouble started following incessant machete attacks on residents by unknown persons.
Five persons, according to residents of the community, have been attacked since Sunday, resulting in the death of a woman.
The attacks which continued unabated have caused apprehension among residents.
Many had refrained from going to farms as a result of the attacks.
