Okuama People Don’t Own Any Land, How Can Settlers Now Claim They Own Land? —Okoloba Counters Okuama

Following the communal clash between Okuama, an Urhobo community in Ughelli South Local Government Area (LGA), and Okoloba, an Ijaw community in Bomadi LGA in Delta State, which culminated in the killing of 17 military personnel on March 14, the Chairman of Okoloba community, Clement Koki, has debunked claims by Okuama community that Okoloba encroached on their land, according to Vanguard.

Koki was reacting to claims by an Okuama leader in an April 2 interview with Vanguard, tracing the origin of the communal clash to an encroachment on Okuama’s land by a rich Okoloba leader, who later involved soldiers to settle scores with Okuama community.

The Okoloba Community Chairman poured cold water on the Okuama leader’s claims, saying narration was “full of fabricated lies and complicity”

He disclosed that the Okuama people are indeed settlers on the land they are now claim to own. According to him, Okoloba did not originally share a boundary with Okuama but with Akugbene, explaining that Akugbene community offered Okuama people the land to settle on when they (Okuama people) fled from their original land because of a crisis that arose over the installation of a king in Ewu Kingdom. That, according to him, was how Okoloba came to share a boundary with Okuama.

Koki added that Okuama later trespassed on their benefactor, Akugbene’s land, leading to several court cases and judgements, notably the 1945 judgment which established their settler’s status.

He said:

“The question we, Okoloba, ask is, ‘Can you give what you do not have?’ They, the Okuama people, do not own any land. How can settlers that were running for safety and our brothers, Akugbene, gave them their land to fish and farm, now claim that they own land that we encroached on? It does not add up.”

Speaking further, Koki insisted that Okuama has always been the aggressor who the Okoloba community have been tolerating over the years.

He insisted that Okuama, driven by its reckless territorial expansionist quest to take over Okoloba’s land, hired the mercenaries that killed the 17 soldiers.

Exonerating Okoloba from the unfortunate March 14 incident, Koki stated that before the incident Okoloba people had always appealed to the state government to intervene in the brewing crisis, adding that the army (JTF), the Police, the DSS, and NSCDC, and the Local Government authorities can attest to their efforts to live peaceably with Okuama.