Tension as Aladja,Ogbe-Ijoh threaten war in land dispute

By SYLVESTER IDOWU, Warri

Palpable tension has enveloped the Urhobo populated Aladja community in Udu Local Government Area and that of Ogbe-Ijoh, which is an Ijaw community in Warri Local Government Area of Delta State over claims of ownership of land.

The two ethnic groups have been engaged in cold war over claims of ownership of the land with Ogbe-Ijoh issuing a 14-day relocation threat to the Aladja community who claimed to be the landlord.

The Ogbe-Ijoh community, through the youths leadership had on Sunday written a warning letter asking the Delta State Government to ask the Aladja community to vacate land, threatening to use whatever means to force them packing.

But reacting to the ultimatum yesterday, the Aladja community alerted the Delta state government that the call by Ogbe-Ijoh community for them to vacate their ancestral home town was sacrilegious and insulting.

They warned that the quit order was an invitation for another round of bloody gun battle between the two communities.

The Aladja community, in a statement signed by its Chairman, Ejovbo Ashe; Secretary General, Kingsley Krokele and Publicity Secretary, Diemuare Olokpa, respectively called on Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, to call the people of Ogbe-Ijoh youths to order to avoid another crisis between the two neighbouring communities.

They recalled how the land being occupied by the Ijaws at Ogbe-Ijoh was given to them by the people of Aladja having been evicted from Warri GRA by one British Captain James in 1908.

“Maybe the present generation of Ogbe-Ijoh people think the world has forgotten so soon how they came to live on the Aladja land after they were evicted from their land in present day Warri GRA.

“The Ogbe-Ijoh people should go and reclaim their land in Warri which one British Captain James evicted them from in 1908 and same land leased to the British by Chief Dore Numa.

“The present day Warri GRA was the ancestral home of the Ogbe-Ijoh people until 1908 when the British had need of land and evicted the Ogbe-Ijoh people from the land vide a lease on the land by Chief Dore Numa. After this eviction the people of Aladja took pity on them and allowed them to squat on the far edge of the Aladja land. But this act of magnanimity has turned out to be the greatest undoing of the Aladja people today”, they lamented.

The Aladja people warned Ogbe-Ijoh community to stop acts of intimidation and allow peace to reign, saying they would not hesitate to defend themselves and properties with whatever means available to them. (Adopted from THISDAY)