As the nation continues to mourn the gruesome murder of some military personnel in Delta State, a community leader in the state Olorogun Sleek Oshare says a land dispute led to the killing.
Seventeen persons were killed in the Okuama community of Delta State last week in what has continued to generate condemnation from Nigerian authorities.
While giving insights into the killing on Monday, Oshare said the military personnel were in the area as part of measures to settle a land dispute between Okuama and a neighbouring community.
“The quarrel was just a land dispute between one family and another family and land disputes happen over and over again,” he said on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
“One community felt that the other had a military connection and they were being pressured unnecessarily. The pressure is more on Okuoma and they don’t have anybody to speak for them.
“In the whole narrative, you don’t hear the name of the other community. Where is Okoloba? In the last two days, Okoloba has disappeared because they are also afraid.
“Sometimes, it is made to look as if it were an ethnic thing. It was just a dispute between individuals and Okoloba, which seems to have more connections.
“The families that were involved in the dispute are highly placed. Until we go into the real investigation, the truth will not come out.
“It is then the nation will come out to sympathize with the children, pregnant women, and old people who could have lost their lives in the random shootings.” The community was razed following the killing but Oshare says there should be restraints.
“At this point, we should be careful whom we point fingers at, there might be some people who want to incite the authorities against the people of Okuama,” he said.
Since the incident, the Federal Government, Delta State, and military authorities have vowed to fish out perpetrators of the crime.
But another guest on the show Kabiru Adamu says the community should help in making that possible
”The community has a responsibility to support the Nigerian state in fishing out those responsible,” the security expert said.
By Emmanuel Egobiambu
