There is tension brewing now between the Ijaws of Ikoro and the Binis of Obazuwa over a large size of land at Utugberu area of Obazuwa. If not urgently and well handled it might explode into an inter-communal war which will give the various government and security agencies a tough case to tackle.
The new conflict is as a result of a rudely and insulting manner the Ijaws forcefully entered part of Obazuwa land to excavate commercial sands. Enogie of Obazuwa, HRH Prince Edun Akenzua, petitioned the Edo State Commissioner of Police sometime ago for forcible entry and conduct likely to cause a breach of peace. The police invited the Arrowhead of the burrow pit, one Ama Sibete, and compelled him to remove the bulldozer from the site where crops and important economic trees were wilfully destroyed pending its thorough investigation.
One unintelligent argument put up by the Ijaws is that they don't have boundary with Obazuwa,  their immediate neighbour but Egbaen, Obagie and Evbolekpen which are before Obazuwa when approaching Ikoro from Benin City. This literally means Obazuwa, with five major streets, oil palm, rubber and arable farms and a sizeable population with over a hundred houses does not exists in the eyes of the Ijaws.  This is provocative enough, coupled with recurring militant attacks enough for the Binis to resort to violence but have been effectively tamed by the elders who believe in non-violent approach to solving problems. Unfortunately for them the Ikoro Ijaws granted a contradictory interview to a reputable Nigerian newspaper, the Tribune on June 7, 2019 where Obazuwa was described as neighbour when complaining bitterly of an abandoned health project. Furthermore, government gazettes and colonial intelligence reports revealed that Obazuwa has been existing for centuries while Ikonoke stands out as being between Obazuwa and Ikoro. They later sack Ikonoke in an inter-communal conflict in 1987.
It would be recalled that on the 3rd June 2011, some group of Ijaw youths attacked Obazuwa men who were measuring their bush which the Enogie donated to Edo State Government to establish one of the three model secondary schools each in the three senatorial districts by former Governor Adams Oshiomhole. Three Obazuwa men were taken to Ikoro, tied to their Egbesu shrine and were mercilessly flogged with cutlasses and sticks to a pulp. It was when they were about to be burnt with a box of matches, four litres of petrol by their sides, and chained that the police arrived in the niche of time to rescue them. The people also lost several motorbikes and a car to the assailants and many Binis suffered injuries which scars are still with them. Six of those arrested were prosecuted and sentenced to five months imprisonment each in March 2020, about nine years of a tortuous legal prosecution that went through two magistrate courts at Okada, Ovia Northeast Local Government of Edo State. Because of the pervading insecurity Obazuwa painfully lost the grandiose project to New Era College in Benin City.
It was as the petition was being investigated both at the State and Zonal Police levels that Ama Sibete, who probably had the backing of the pere of Olodiama, Godwin Oguyeibo, an elevated juju priesthood, another burning issue that was forcibly installed about three years ago, and declared wanted by the State Government, drove another bulldozer at midnight on the 29th November 2020 to the burrow pit and is currently excavating sand. This new action is what is brewing bad blood which the Binis see as an affront on their domain and flagrant disobedience of the police who are trying to make peace so that it does not blow into a fullscale war. It is also verifiable that certain Obazuwa sons forwarded another petition on conduct likely to promote inter-communal war to the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 5, Benin City on the move to deprive them of their heritage sold without their knowledge or permission by Enogie of Evbolekpen with tacit support from the Ijaws. It is noteworthy that Ijaws of Gelegele, led by S.P. Apohi, Moses Pawuru, had in November 1996 collectively petitioned the then Edo State Governor,, Group Captain Baba Adamu Iyam that pere of Olodiama was a promotion of a familial lord to reign over them. Yet the same title manifested in Ikoro in 2017 mysteriously who the Edo State is courting secretly with intent to recognizing him. Stakeholders are still wondering why Governor Godwin Obaseki reneged on the initial order declaring him wanted for violation of extant chieftaincy laws. Astonishingly, Ijaws who are reputed globally as migrant fishermen dotting riverlines are now scrambling for land to rediscover themselves as modern growth and development are not reaching their difficult terrain. They have abandoned their traditional fishing occupation to learn 'cut and nail' arable farming in order to lay possession to the lands they seized from weak Binis.
The Binis of Obazuwa are preparing to defend their ancestral land with their strength should the government and the relevant security agencies fail to intervene. Obazuwa youths who accused the Ijaws of selling their land in connivance with Evbolekpen in another deal with a Lekki, Lagos agricultural firm, are fuming that they have been fraudulently expropriated of their age-long natural resources while crops on the farmlands were wilfully destroyed with brazen arrogance.
Many Binis in neighbour communities on the Benin-Ekehuan road axis believe that because Ijaws had successfully routed Binis from Abiala bordering Gelegele and Ikonoke which actually is between Ikoro Ijaws and Obazuwa they are audacious enough to march on to sack the complainants; they too are evoking a strong Benin solidarity to aid their victory.