The Mayor of Urhoboland and notable voice in the Niger Delta region, Eshanakpe Israel a.k.a Akpodoro, has called for a stakeholders’ conference between traditional rulers of Urhobo and Ijaw ethnic nationalities to brainstorm in a concerted effort at midwifing peace between the two warring communities and others who are at loggerheads over land dispute.
The Mayor gave this hint in Abuja, Sunday at a stakeholders’ meeting held at the wake of the reported killing of over 16 army officers who claimed to have stormed two neighbouring communities that were engaged in land dispute.
Mayor Akpodoro said his call for a brainstorming session between the traditional rulers of both blocs is informed by the need to entrench peace among the younger generation of both ethnic nations.
He noted that Urhobo and Ijaw over the decades have always been good friends in progress before “millennia generation rose to stoke crisis that is currently undermining peace in the geographical space that we both share.”
The time has come for the Urhobo Progress Union, UPU, the Urhobo traditional institution, and their Ijaw counterparts meet to resolve whatever differences impeding peace in the areas they share common boundaries noting that his call on the traditional rulers is innocuous and a wake up call on both nations.
Only the traditional institution as grassroot leaders can interrogate directly with the youths in their domain for the purpose of peace building and if every traditional rules decides to make peace, there would be enduring peace in the communities.
“We need the traditional institution to put machineries in place to ensure quick intervention in conflicts before it snowballs into crisis of the magnitude we have in our hands.
“Our kings should come together to foster peace so that the people can live among themselves in peace and tranquility.
“When the Okoloba and Okuama communities’ conflict started, if the two traditional councils concerned had met regularly and vowed to end the melee, it would not have gotten to where it is today.
“The federal government through legislation should assign more roles to the traditional institution to at least get more involved in conflict prevention and resolution without which achieving safety of lives and properties may remain a mirage.
“Our traditional rulers are closer than any government to the people. They understand the body language of their kits and kins more than any form of government,” the vociferous Mayor stated.
Such brainstorming sessions, the Mayor said should be immediate and its scope should go beyond Okoloba and Okuama crisis and should transcend Udu/Aladja and to other areas where Urhobo and Ijaw speaking people dwell.
The Mayor, who condemned in its entirety the reported killing of soldiers in one of the warring communities, said the federal government should set up a high powered panel to investigate the ugly incident that has never happened in the recent history of the Nigerian army.
“The Okuama and Okoloba tragedy has assumed a national dimension and all hands must be on deck for the federal government to institute a panel of investigation to unravel those behind the dastardly act. The remote and immediate cause of the avoidable blood letting must be unraveled with the objective of punishing those culpable.
“The killing of our soldiers is one crime too many. It is unacceptable, it is condemnable and an evil against the Nigerian state. Out traditional rulers must rise to the occasion by brainstorming a bond of unity across ethnic divides,” the Mayor stated.
