The Ugborodo Administrative Committee (UAC) has accused the Austin Oborogbeyi-led Ugborodo Community Management Committee (UCMC) of orchestrating the unfortunate incident of Tuesday, August 22, 2017, in which Samuel Mayomi died.
The UAC, in a statement signed by its chairman, Jolomi Metsegharun, who is president-general of Ugborodo community, also accused the leadership of UCMC of forging the signature of the Eghare-Aja (oldest man in the community), Pa Wellington Ojogor, alleging the Eghare-Aja is incapacitated.
But in a reaction to Metsegharun’s allegation, a member of UCMC, Alex Eyengho, described the allegations as attempt to divert attention from the real issue, involving responsibility for the death.
Metseghanrun alleged the signature of the Eghare-Aja was forged in an advert publication in a national newspaper in line with the constitution of the community, noting that the man could not physically and mentally perform such role.
He, however, accused the Oborogbeyi-led management committee of causing the incident of August 22 and urged security agencies to unravel circumstances surrounding the incident.
“Apart from forging the signature of the Eghare-Aja, the decision to have a general meeting ougt to emanate from the community where you want to hold the meeting and not from Warri-based elders who claim superiority over the council of elders in the community.
“We call on the Federal Government to investigate the council of elders in Warri on where and how they arrive at the decision of calling for a general meeting that would hold at Ode-Ugborodo without the input of the council of elders living in Ugborodo”, he said.
Meanwhile, the UCMC has described the allegations of forgery and orchestration of the August 22 disaster, being tagged on it by the Metsegharun group as laughable and a diversionary tactic, aimed at watering down the effect of the guilt associated with being responsible for people’s is having on them.
Member of the UCMC, who has been speaking on the group’s behalf since the incident occurred, Alex Eyengho, while responding to the issues raised by Metsegharun, said the allegations were false.
“We had expected that they would come with these excuses, which we find very laughable. First, on the allegation of threat messages, there was no such thing. The meeting that was supposed to have held that day was officially published and over 300 they are talking about are Ugborodo people who responded to that publication to have the meeting in the community.
“On the signature forgery they talked about, is also very laughable. The Eghare-Aja is the chairman of the elders council in the community and none of the elders in the community has come up to say that his signature in that publication was forged. This just one of the tactics they are using to divert the attention from the real issue, involving their killing of two persons during the attack on us last week”, he said.