By Godwin Oghre Sapele—If information
reaching Vanguard is to be
relied upon, the Egbema
Radical Group, ERG, the Ijaw
militants, which claimed
responsibility for the killing of no fewer than 12 Itsekiri
natives and burning down of
seven villages belonging to
Itsekiris in Warri North Local
Government Area of Delta
State, will hand-over their arms and ammunition to the
Joint military Task Force, JTF,
Operation Pulo Shield. The JTF is under the command
of Lt Col Frank Etim, the
Commanding Officer of the 3
Battalion of the Army Koko
Barracks, Warri North. It was gathered, yesterday,
that the militant had promised
to hand over their arms on July
17, 2013 and that they
preferred to do so in
Ogbudugbudu community, an Ijaw suburb in Warri North,
but failed to do so on
Wednesday, as they claimed
there were no concrete
arrangements that would
guarantee their safety during the exercise. A prominent member of
Egbema Gbaramatu Kingdom,
Reverend Sam Eke, told
Vanguard on phone that the
handover of arms and
ammunition was botched on the part of the Ijaw militants
and that a new arrangement
was in progress as a new date
would be communicated to JTF
and the council authority after
a council meeting in Abuja of prominent Ijaw and Itsekiri
leaders. The militants were said to be
ready to hand-over their arms
on the condition that their
safety would be guaranteed. When Vanguard visited Koko,
the headquarters of the
council, senior military officers
and ratings as well as other JTF
men were seen prepared to
receive the militants and their arms and ammunition. They were also joined in the
waiting by some prominent
Ijaw and Itsekiri leaders as
well as the Chairman of Warri
North council, Mr David Edun
and other senior official of the council, all of who waited in
vain as the militants did not
turn up for reason which was
later attributed to poor
security guarantees. The council Chairman, Edun told
Vanguard, during the waiting
period that no date had been
given for the handover and
that negotiation was still in
progress with a view to concluding arrangement
between security officials and
the militants.

This is a welcome development. I hope Ijaw elders are able to control their youths and desperate politicians who attack and kill their neighbours at the slightest misunderstanding. The youths needs to be schooled in the art of non violent agitation. A war would hurt both sides. Both sides are yet to recover from the casualty of the last conflict where lives were lost by both sides and some youths want to start another one.

The amazing thing is that ordinary ijaw man and itsekiri man have no issues. Even at the height of the last conflict my cousin married an ijaw lady. It is the politicians that ignite conflict to gain political advantage.

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