A resident of the Okuama community in Delta State, Southern Nigeria has attributed the tragedy of March 14 to a setup by the neighbouring Okoloba community, following a protracted disagreement.
“It is unfortunate, but we believe this was a setup against Okuama community,” the resident told News Central TV during a town hall meeting on Wednesday, May 22.
He informed our team that before the incident, there had been an unresolved misunderstanding between their community and the Okoloba community. This issue had been reported to the state government and security operatives, but no effort was made to broker a truce.
According to him, they had heard rumours that members of the “rival community” were disguising in military fatigues to invade their community to cause mayhem.
“On March 13, we received information that Patrick from the Okoloba community had been recruiting boys in army uniforms, and they were planning to attack our community.
“We acted on this information and immediately contacted the HPM, the Commissioner of Police, and other security operatives. We received no response from them. Then, on March 14, the tragedy occurred,” he recalled.
He narrated the events that led to the tragic killings and destruction of property by the military. His words:
“On that fateful day, March 14, most of our people were at their farms. Two military speedboats arrived, and some soldiers disembarked. We welcomed the visiting military personnel, as tradition demands.
“Afterwards, they requested to see the chairman of our community. The chairman, who was on his farm at the time, was brought along with other members of the EXCO. When the EXCO arrived, the military then said they wanted to take them to Bomadi for questioning.
“We did not understand why they wanted to take them, so we insisted that they ask the questions here. They refused and insisted on taking our leaders away. The community women intervened, insisting that our leaders must not be taken.
“Suddenly, two people appeared from the Bomadi side on speedboats, wearing the same army uniform, while others were in civilian clothing. They did not wait to reach the shore before they started shooting.
“They fired at the military and the community women. They shot directly at our women and youths, who were preventing them from taking our leaders away. They killed most of the community people and the military personnel.
“Those who survived the sporadic shootings fled into the forests. The military returned the next day and finished off the community. They destroyed everything in sight. This was our experience.”
The Okuama resident said at least 15 survivors died from hunger and snake bites while hiding in the forests.
“We slept in the forests for days with no food to eat, and no water to drink. A lot of people died. We lost about fifteen persons in the forest from snake bites, mosquito bites (malaria), and hunger. Children died from fever,” he narrated.
When our correspondent and anchor of the Okuama town hall meeting, Bernard Akede, asked if there was any information on the alleged perpetrators, he said they were not from the Okuama community and were not known.
“The people who did the shooting are not from this community. We do not know them. However, we have been having issues with our neighbouring community called Okoloba. There is a man there named Patrick Akpobolokemi. We have had problems with him since January.
“He captured some of our boys and killed three of them. We reported the situation to the state government but received no response. One of our boys, whom Patrick captured, is still with the police in Asaba, nursing a bullet wound he sustained while fleeing from him.
“We had been receiving information about their plans to attack, but we were waiting for the state government to respond, as we could not fight back. We have no power to fight.
“We waited for a response from the government, but received none. This was our experience,” he said.