Posted by By Dipo Kehinde on
Others who lost their lives, according to the Clan Head of Erise Group of Houses, Chief Matthew Akano, included 75-year-old Chief Obed Newman, Chief Jerry Ikpeyeigha, and Emmanuel Amadi.
Others who lost their lives, according to the Clan Head of Erise Group of Houses, Chief Matthew Akano, included 75-year-old Chief Obed Newman, Chief Jerry Ikpeyeigha, and Emmanuel Amadi.
Others are Madam Lily Amuna, Allison Finegi, Madam Orefie Bonny, Madam Ineraa Famokuma, and a secondary school student whose name was given simply as Lucky. Their bodies were said to have been picked from the bush.
Chief Akano in company of few other leaders of Odioma community who escaped from the attack told newsmen in Port-Harcourt Tuesday that the crisis which has its origin in the Owukubu oil field, an area belonging to Odioma community, climaxed Saturday February 19, 2005 at about 8am when some relief materials were sent to the community by Brass local government area chairman, Mr. Nathaniel Silver.
"About five minutes after the materials were brought, the gunmen, numbering about 200 and dressed in camouflage military uniform, arrived in 20 speed boats and three gun boats with sophisticated weapons and opened fire, killing people and burning houses," Akano said.
He added that Ibidi and Odioma communities were completely razed, while majority of those killed were thrown into the sea.
"As I am talking to you now, there is no sign of life in Odioma. The entire community has been completely razed," Akano said, adding that they were able to identify some of the gunmen as youths from Bassambiri.
Tracing the genesis of the crisis, Akano said it has to do with the oil-rich Owukubu, an area belonging to Odioma, which their Bassambiri neighbours in Nembe local government area, Bayelsa State, are laying claim to.
According to him, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has earlier signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Odioma people in 1998 for oil exploration activities in the area before Bassambiri people began laying claim to the area, and had gotten contact from SPDC for clearing of the area for the construction of SPDC flow station.
Feeling shortchanged, he said, Odioma people had stopped the work, but the contractor, (names withheld) allegedly mobilised youths of Bassambiri to launch a bloody attack on the community.
Akano said the community was able to identify some of the gunmen as youths of Bassambiri.
The deputy governor of Bayelsa, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, was said to have visited the ravaged communities and promised that a judicial commission of inquiry would be set up to look into the matter.
The people who escaped from Odioma are currently taking refuge at a hotel in the outskirts of Port-Harcourt owned by a prominent chief from the area.
During its sitting on Tuesday, the Senate was told how unidentified persons suspected to be members of a cult murdered a pregnant woman and eleven other people in cold blood as part of the mayhem in Odioma.
Narrating the incident before his colleagues, Senator Spiff, representing Bayelsa east senatorial district, said the 12 people were killed in a boat while travelling for a peace mission in Obioku community in Nembe local government area.
Spiff, while moving a motion for restoration of peace and order in the community, noted that a joint military task force was drafted to fish out the criminals and contain the situation, but it failed to do so and rather aggravated the situation.
Adopting three points of the five point prayers by Spiff, the Senate condemned the killings and destruction in the Odioma community.
The Senate further raised a joint committee comprising the Senate Committees on Defence, Police and Security/Intelligence.
The joint committee chaired by Senator Fidelis Okoro, is to visit Odioma and its environs to assess the situation, investigate the remote and immediate cause of the crisis and report to the Senate within seven days.
Additionally, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) was directed to send relief materials to the displaced persons and refugees in the community.