Relocate To Aladja, Ogbe-Ijoh For Peace, Mulade Urges Governor Okowa

Niger Delta Activist Comrade Sheriff Mulade has advised the Governor of Delta State, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa to take it as a matter of urgent importance and relocate to Aladja and Ogbe-Ijoh in order to settle the crisis rocking the two communities for the past years till date.

Comrade Mulade, a peace advocate and National Coordinator, Centre for Peace and Environmental Justice, CEPEJ made the call while speaking to newsmen on the recent attacks by the warring communities of Aladja in Udu Local Government Area and Ogbe-Ijoh, Warri South-West Local Government Area, which according to him has claimed 11 lives and houses burnt down during the attacks.

He lamented that the Delta State Government was not doing enough to broker peace among the warring communities which has lingered for too long now, urging the state government to move in and restore peace, law and order in both communities so as to foster peace and sustain the economic growth and revenue in Delta State.

The Warri based Niger Delta activist implored the Delta State Government to “stop inviting Aladja and Ogbe-Ijoh, stop setting up committies as well as inviting both warring parties to Asaba and to other security meetings which has not brought any fruitful peace to the crisis ridden cities since the coming of the present administration”.

He expressed disappointment over the way and manner the Government is handling the issue, and said, “will Governor Okowa wait till a prominent Deltan or highly placed politicians lost his or her life before the government will intervene to end the crisis? Is it because the deaths are not his relations? Must the people produce a governor to resolve their disputes? The greatest assets of any society are its citizens and we recently lost over 11 lives and our dynamic Governor Ifeanyi Okowa could not make an emergency trip to sympathise with victims and people of both communities but was in neighbouring city of Warri recently to celebrate event centre opening while citizens are dying. The state government can broker peace among the warring communities and this will definitely boost the re-election of the Governor in 2019”.

Mulade further stressed that, through the visit of the Governor to the conflict zone, he will use the medium to warn both communities of Aladja and Ogbe-Ijoh to stop the ugly act or face the wrath of the State, saying that; “So many lives have been lost and too many blood bath flow for too long. We should stop killing ourselves”.