Youths from Eleme in Eleme Local Government of Rivers gird their loins for a showdown with their Okrika neighbours
By Felix Egonu, Port-Harcourt. A major communal clash appears to be brewing between Eleme and Okrika ethnic groups. The two ethnic groups inhabit Eleme and Okrika local government areas of Rivers state respectively.
Except government intervenes promptly, the bottled anger, especially on the side of Eleme would soon explode, and the aftermath may be bloody. Eleme people are alleging that government has allowed their Okrika neighbours to encroach on their land.
Last week, Eleme youths took to the streets to protest alleged encroachment on their lands by Okrika people. Okrika is the hometown of Nigeria’s first lady, Patience Jonathan.The protesters, numbering more than 700, including youths and women blocked the Eleme-Onne axis of the East-west road in the state as early as 7am on Thursday, September 20, to draw the attention of both state and federal government to their plight.
They specifically barricaded the ever busy road leading to Onne which plays host to major national and multinational establishments located in the area. For several hours, movement of many vehicles heading to the area was halted. The choice of that day was perhaps to draw the attention of the federal government whose officials, including President Goodluck Jonathan, were billed for a programme in Onne that day.
However, following last minute security report, President Jonathan shelved the trip to Rivers state. He was initially billed to declare open a programme of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Trade and Investment Forum 2012, which took place at the Oil and Gas Free Zone in Onne September 20.
The protesting youths also blocked the Eleme Junction leading to the Port-Harcourt Refinery and the Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone. They displayed placards, some of them with inscriptions; Eleme are farmers, where are our lands: “We want the report of the “Eleme/Okrika boundary demarcation published,” among others. The protest created gridlock at the Eleme junction axis of the Port-Harcourt, Aba expressway, as motorists coming into the state and vehicles moving into the Free Zone to attend the conference were put on hold for over two hours.
However, it took the intervention of security operatives to disperse the crowd and make way for the traffic to flow as they shot into the air. But no casualty was recorded. Isaac Obe, President of Eleme Youths Council, EYC, said their action was to protest the judgment given in respect of a land dispute between Eleme and Okrika communities of which the expected demarcation, has not been done.
Obe alleged that lands belonging to Eleme people were continually being encroached on by the Okrika people, despite letters written by Eleme youth leadership to the State Commissioner of Police to draw the attention of the Boundary Adjustment Committee headed by Tele Ikuru, the state Deputy Governor on the matter. He also alleged that indigenes of the area, including the youths were being marginalised in terms of employment by companies operating in the Oil and Gas Free Zone; even when they have qualified Engineers and graduates from the area.
Josiah Orlu, member representing Eleme Constituency in the Rivers State House of Assembly, in his reaction to the protest, corroborated the views of the youths that the host communities of the Free Zone had not been treated fairly by the firms there. He added that the action of the youths was to draw government’s attention to the insensitivity of the companies to their host communities, stressing however that the people would remain law abiding and be open to dialogue.
However, the Rivers state chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has described as inflammatory, statement credited to Governor Chibuike Amaechi in respect of the protest in Eleme. The party in a statement signed by Jerry Needam, its Publicity Secretary, said the governor’s statement was capable of creating disaffection and crisis between the two neighbouring communities of Eleme and Okrika.
According to the statement, rather than address the deplorable state of roads, high rate of youth unemployment and lack of infrastructural development in the area which were the basis for youths’ protest, Amaechi was quoted to have reasoned that the protest was about land control against a particular community. The party had earlier described the protest as ill-timed because it was coming on a day the President and many other people from different walks of life were coming to the area.
More worrisome, the party said, was the fact that the divisionary and inciting statement was made during the programme of the Oil and Gas International Conference at the Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone in which foreign diplomats and investors were in attendance. Dialogue, the ACN said remains the best option in addressing intra-ethnic issues other than use of unhealthy political language or approach.
Source: OgoniNews
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