AN
eight-point recommendation that will bring a lasting solution
to the intermittent crises in the Warri metropolis, has been made by Chief
Benjamin O. Okumagba.
Okumagba,
who is the President-General of Urhobo Progress Union (UPU), made the recommendations
to the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Riots, Crises and Conflicts, whose members
visited Warri, Delta State recently.
Okumagba,
who made the presentation on behalf of Okere-Urhobo Kingdom, Warri traced
the genesis of the crises in Warri which have claimed several lives and
property to the quest by the traditional ruler of the Itsekiris and his
subjects to extend their control over all parts of Warri.
According
to Okumagba, who is also the Otota of Okere-Urhobo, the Itsekiris have
intensified their assault on the Okere-Urhobo Kingdom of Warri since the
advent of democracy in May 1999 and on each occasion, the attacks had been
"unprovoked, premeditated, bloody and barbaric" in execution.
The
UPU President-General alleged that several of the attacks by the Itsekiris
were aided by some military personnel in the David Ejoor Army Barracks,
Warri, adding that a helicopter belonging to an oil company was used to
ferret combatants and drop explosives on Okere-Urhobo areas during one
of the attacks.
Okumagba
said that for peace to reign in Warri, the Senate Committee should consider
the following recommendations:
the title of the Olu (of Warri) should be made to revert
back to its original title of Olu of Itsekiri and not Olu of Warri, since
it is the genesis of all the problems in Warri.
The
change of the title in 1952 by the Action Group government of the Western
Region, when the present Delta State was under the Western Region, was
what encouraged and fuelled the "inordinate ambition to lord it over their
neighbours" of the traditional ruler and his Itsekiri subjects.
that an entirely new local council should be created for
Okere-Urhobo Kingdom in the interest of self determination, even development,
peace, justice and fair play;
that it is also in the interest of peace that a minimum of
one local council be created for the people of Agbarha Kingdom in Warri;
that the Senate Committee, after reviewing all facts, should
see and declare the Itsekiris the aggressors in all the conflicts since
May 1999;
that the government should stop the generalisation of trouble
makers in Warri as they (government) cannot claim ignorance of who the
trouble makers are;
that government should stop the harassment and disturbance
of Okere-Urhobos in their own homes by security operatives, especially
those whose houses were destroyed or burnt in 1999, by the Itsekiris and
who were trying to rebuild such houses but had been prevented from doing
so by the Itsekiris;
government should as a matter of grave urgency, provide adequate
security arrangement for the oppressed Okere-Urhobo Kingdom and its people
and should do everything to stop the Itsekiris from disturbing the Okere-Urhobos
from reconstructing their kingdom which the Itsekiris destroyed in June
1999 and several times over after then;
government should provide some financial assistance for the
reconstruction of the property of Okere-Urhobo Kingdom.
In
a related development, Chief Okumagba has protested the non-inspection
of the destroyed Okere-Urhobo Kingdom by members of the Senate Committee
who visited Warri in early February.
According
to him, the committee members were deftly diverted by the Itsekiris from
visiting the site of the destruction even though the committee members
heard the oral presentation of the Okere-Urhobos led by Chief Wilson Eboh.
Okumagba
alleged that the committee members were deliberately piloted by the Itsekiris
to the Palace of the Ovie of Agbassa Kingdom, a people that have not been
involved in the crises in Warri, leaving out the people who have always
borne the brunt of the crises - Okere-Urhobos.