By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Independent News ExpressIndependent News Express
  • Home
  • International
    InternationalShow More
    United Nations
    4th International Conference On Financing For Development Delivers Renewed Hope And Action For Sustainable Development
    5 days ago
    The African Development Bank and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) scale up drive for sustainable urbanization in Africa
    AfDB, UN-Habitat Scale Up Drive For Sustainable Urbanisation In Africa
    6 days ago
    UN
    North Africa: Green Climate Fund Approves Record $300m For FAO-designed Projects In Papua New Guinea, Saint Lucia, The Sahel
    7 days ago
    UNICEF
    How Wars Across Middle East, North Africa Affecting Children – UNICEF
    7 days ago
    UNDP
    UN Development Programme Welcomes Historic Deal On Sustainable Development Even Amidst Global Turmoil
    1 week ago
  • Africa
    Africa
    Show More
    Top News
    Horn of Africa Drought: WHO Warns Of Disease Threat
    3 years ago
    Climate Change to Take Centre Stage at Africa Health Agenda International Conference In March 2023
    2 years ago
    Egypt: Mass Arrests Target Family, Supporters of Ex-Member Of Parliament
    2 years ago
    Latest News
    At Gender Statistics Forum, African Leaders Urge Renewed Commitment To Quality Gender Data
    2 days ago
    Ooni’s Wife, Olori Temitope Enitan-Ogunwusi Takes Ile Ife Royalty To ADWIN Launch In Cote d’Ivoire
    4 weeks ago
    Independent UN Body Finds Systemic Racism Against Africans And People Of African Descent
    4 weeks ago
    Public Exit: Why South Africa Businesses Are Moving To Private Cloud
    1 month ago
  • Corporate News
    • Media Outreach
  • Politics
    Politics
    Show More
    Top News
    2023: Tinubu Knocks Obasanjo In Edo
    3 years ago
    Sanwo-Olu
    Lagos Guber Poll: Christians Back Sanwo-Olu For Second Term
    2 years ago
    Remain Calm, Steadfast To The Course – Obi Urges Obidients, Nigerians
    2 years ago
    Latest News
    Lagos LG Poll: Tunde Disco/Ganiyu Obasa Intensify Campaign In Agege
    2 weeks ago
    PHOTOS: Vinod Obasa Joins Other Lagos APC LG Candidates At Sanwo-Olu’s Reception
    2 weeks ago
    Lagos Lawmaker Praises Tinubu For Helping Nigeria Breathe Again
    4 weeks ago
    LG Election: Stakeholders Appeal To APC Not To Allow Chairmen Run For 3rd term
    2 months ago
  • News
    • Agriculture
    • Breaking News
    • Tech
    • Maritime
    • Crime
    • Art & Culture
    News
    Show More
    Top News
    Celebration Of Life: Reverend Adewumi Jegede Of Later House Of God Assembly Buried Amid Pomp
    1 year ago
    Ondo Governor, Akeredolu Begins Construction Of First Flyover In Akure
    2 years ago
    Pa Abdulfatah Amoo Ayanwale
    Pa Ayanwale Dies At 76, Fidau Prayers Holds 8 August
    2 years ago
    Latest News
    She Was an Amazon Who Left Indelible Marks — Ayorinde Pays Tribute to Late Ambassador Adefope
    13 hours ago
    IMSUAA 2025 Convention Mascot: A Symbol Of Love, Unity And Cultural Diversity
    2 days ago
    Lagos Hosts Groundbreaking Revenue Recovery Summit
    2 days ago
    CFE Foundation Seeks Sponsors to Sustain Humanitarian Programs Amidst Funding Challenges
    5 days ago
  • Entertainment
    • Comedy
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Television
    • Concert & Events
    Entertainment
    Show More
    Top News
    GOtv
    Yuletide: GOtv Improves Signal Quality In Abuja, Rivers State
    3 years ago
    It’s Easter Holidays with Top Entertaining Programs Showing from this Week on GOtv
    2 years ago
    Hi-Life Fest: Show Progresses With Six Contestants, Features Frederick Leonard As Guest Judge
    2 years ago
    Latest News
    Purp vs Raymu: Who Will Be Crowned The Next Nigerian Idol?
    1 day ago
    Local Content Powers African Dreams
    4 days ago
    The Drama Returns As BBNaija ‘No Loose Guard’ Reunion Premieres June 23
    2 weeks ago
    You Can’t Fake it — James Omekwe On MultiChoice’s Impact On African Filmmaking
    4 weeks ago
  • Lifestyle
    • Fashion
    • Love & Life
    • Food & Drink
    • Travel & Tourism
    • Relationship
    • Sex
    Lifestyle
    Show More
    Top News
    NCC, NICO To Leverage Telecom Channels To Promote Nigerian Cultural Heritage
    1 year ago
    Believe In Healing Power Of Blood Of Jesus – Bishop Tells Congregants
    2 years ago
    Lagos Seeks Strategic Partnership To Drive Tourism
    4 months ago
    Latest News
    Noble Call to Service: Inside the Induction of 104 New Knights of St. Mulumba
    3 weeks ago
    Joining The Knighthood Brings You Closer To God -Sir Eva Njemanze
    3 weeks ago
    Africa Tech Festival Unveils Strategic Themes For 2025 Event,
    4 weeks ago
    Lagos SWAN Joins UN To Celebrate World Nutrition Month At Unilag Confab
    1 month ago
  • Business
    • Banking & Finance
    • Oil & Gas
    BusinessShow More
    Petralon's Nigerian Drilling Campaign to Boost Offshore Oil Output
    Petralon’s Nigerian Drilling Campaign To Boost Offshore Oil Output
    1 day ago
    Year 2025
    How Nigeria Can Unleash Its Economic Potential – IMF
    2 days ago
    GTCO Plc Becomes 1st West Africa’s Financial Services Institution To Achieve Listing And Trading Of Its Ordinary Shares On London Stock Exchange
    2 days ago
    Unity Bank
    Unity Bank Empowers Young Entrepreneurs With ₦16M Business Grant
    6 days ago
    NNPCL Board Accused Of Planning Lavish Party In Rwanda Amidst N210tn Financial Scandal
    3 weeks ago
  • Health
    Health
    Show More
    Top News
    What Is Monkeypox And Why Is It spreading?
    3 years ago
    Experts Accede To Nigeria’s Progress, Highlight Areas Of Focus For Maintaining Polio-free Status
    2 years ago
    Oxygen Therapy Improves Heart Function In Patients With Long COVID
    2 years ago
    Latest News
    CAPPA Warns Nigerians On Excessive Consumption Of Sugar-sweetened Beverages, Says Nigeria Is In The Throes Of Public Health Crisis
    17 hours ago
    Rising Non-communicable Diseases: WHO Wants Higher Taxes For Sugary Drinks, Alcohol, Tobacco
    3 days ago
    Online Education Can Enhance Clinical Guideline Use By Over 50% 
    3 weeks ago
    The Hidden Lifeline – Blood Security And Africa’s Health Agenda By Dr Allan Pamba
    4 weeks ago
  • More
    • Sports
    • Aviation/Transportation
    • Deliverance Hour
    • Industry & Labour
    • Insurance
    • Interview
    • Judiciary
    • Metro
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Religious
    • Romance
    • Science & Discovery
Reading: Delta and the Needless Politicization of Okuama
Share
Notification Show More
Aa
Independent News ExpressIndependent News Express
Aa
  • Home
  • International
  • Africa
  • Corporate News
  • Politics
  • News
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Business
  • Health
  • More
Search
  • Home
  • International
  • Africa
  • Corporate News
    • Media Outreach
  • Politics
  • News
    • Agriculture
    • Breaking News
    • Tech
    • Maritime
    • Crime
    • Art & Culture
  • Entertainment
    • Comedy
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Television
    • Concert & Events
  • Lifestyle
    • Fashion
    • Love & Life
    • Food & Drink
    • Travel & Tourism
    • Relationship
    • Sex
  • Business
    • Banking & Finance
    • Oil & Gas
  • Health
  • More
    • Sports
    • Aviation/Transportation
    • Deliverance Hour
    • Industry & Labour
    • Insurance
    • Interview
    • Judiciary
    • Metro
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Religious
    • Romance
    • Science & Discovery
Have an existing account? Sign In
Follow US
  • Advertise
© 2022 Foxiz News Network. Ruby Design Company. All Rights Reserved.
Independent News Express > Blog > Metro > Delta and the Needless Politicization of Okuama
MetroNews

Delta and the Needless Politicization of Okuama

Last updated: 2024/04/23 at 8:58 AM
1 year ago
Share
SHARE

BY FRED EDOREH

Unarguably, Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori started very strongly in the governance of Delta State, promptly completing a good number of inherited projects, initiating new ones and pursuing them all vigorously, across the three senatorial districts of the state.

The N78b contract for flyover bridges and road expansions in the ongoing infrastructural and urban renewal of Warri metropolis, the intensity of work on the Ughelli-Asaba Road Dualisation project, the completion of Beneku Bridge in Ndokwa, Bedeseigha Bridge in Bomadi, and the ongoing construction of Okpanam-Ibusa Bypass, to mention just a few, confounded and dazed pathological cynics and unrestrained naysayers.

- Advertisement -
Ad imageAd image

Many of them had been vainly looking for any glitch to distract and curtail the Governor’s rising rating and dampen the escalating joy of the people.

So, it was no surprise that many of these sceptics felt the incident of Okuama presented an opportunity to feed their puerile passion. Albeit unintelligently, they latched on it with their usual mindless propaganda, even spinning falsehood on the release of the king of Okuama, HRM Clement Ikolo, from detention.

But they totally missed the point because governance is not a show and Oborevwori does not do shows in his mission for the advancement of the state. He sees governance as a calling of high and solemn responsibility, requiring a sane depth of concentration which defines him. Thus, he went about handling all the issues with due process, calculation and quiet action.

It was with such sobriety that he had successfully negotiated a peace agreement between the Okuama and Okoloba communities, before the military went in on the said peace mission.

Perhaps, had the military subjected their actions on the foundation, terms and sequence of the peace agreement already laid by the Governor, possibly, what happened would not have happened. But they are a federal agency whose command is not subject to the control of the Governor.

Still, the brutal killing of 17 soldiers and the mutilation of their bodies, even if it was one soldier, is not a joke. Nigerians, indeed all humanity, were outraged, and
the military was bound to react in some ways.

The people of Okuama knew that what happened was a real invitation of trouble and their fleeing from the community was also reasonably survivalist.

On the part of the state government, handling such a situation needed deep wisdom, masterful diplomacy and tactical engagement, and those were exactly the qualities Oborevwori displayed.

Even as he cared for the innocent, fleeing and displaced villagers, he could not have, by any manner of action or utterance, given the impression that the killing of the 17 soldiers and the need to take full measures to bring the culprits to book, were of less importance to him and the state. He needed to achieve a balance of response in good judgment.

He thus first had to quickly and quietly engage the President and Commander-in-Chief, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the military high command, especially the Minister of Defence, the Chief of Army Staff, and the heads of the various military commands in Delta State, for them and the state to be on the same page on how best to proceed and to bring down the tension, and as well relate with the families of the slain soldiers, to provide healing.

This he achieved excellently with the unanimous understanding that the culprits must be sought and the assurances of the Commander-in-Chief and the military high command that the innocent citizens of Okuama would not be made to suffer for the action of the criminals.

While at that, he had sent the State Emergency Relief Agency to support the displaced community people, but the soldiers did not allow them access. Even the State Police Command and the Commissioner of Police, being sister federal agencies, were not allowed access, on the grounds of the ongoing military action in searching for the murderers.

Such a situation did not require arguments and hard postures as the naysayers recommended. Rather, it was right of Oborevwori to have not only taken time to assure the federal government and the military of the full cooperation of the state, but also practically working with them towards bringing the criminals to book.

That the military declared some people wanted for questioning on the incident is also normal. While we may argue that the process of investigation is a police affair, that does not entirely foreclose the military from carrying out its own investigation in such a matter as the gruesome killing of 17 of its officers and men on duty.

It can also be reasonably argued that when such a thing happens in any community, the leadership of the community, including the king, the President of the community union and some of his executives, would be called for questioning.

It would not only have amounted to obstruction of justice but also evil-minded support of murder, disregard for the dignity of life and disservice to the nation, for the state to have shielded or prevented the arrest of any suspect, not matter how high placed, as some people had suggested, that the state should have done.

To be clear about that, Governor Oborevwori, at a meeting with the Delta State Council of Traditional Rulers, was emphatic that no suspect of the murder should be harboured or covered in any domain or community of the state, else there would be consequences.

While the voluntary submission by King Clement Ikolo speaks to his sense of responsibility, good conscience and respect for the rule of law, no one can be in doubt that before he submitted himself to the police which subsequently handed him over to the military, that he would have had some communications with certain or several officers of the state who also would have encouraged him to step up.

Those engaged in the infantile propaganda of fault-finding and the drawing of lines between the contributions of various top personalities in government, state or federal, on Okuama and indeed the release of the king, are merely the enemies of state whose wish and pleasure is not only to see Delta disunited but also to be at loggerheads with the Federal Government and in hostility with the Nigerian military establishment.

We “jump am pass” because, unfortunately for them, in his understanding of government as a single corporate entity, and leading from the front, Oborevwori has been able to build a sense of unity and common purpose among Delta political leaders, irrespective of party affiliations, level or sphere of service.

It was in that spirit that, Delta State members of the National Assembly, cutting across party lines, paid him a solidarity visit, sometime in February.

Oborevwori’s words on that occasion were golden: “We must be united. We will continue to collaborate. We will continue to work together whether in the National Assembly or here in the State House of Assembly.”

Therefore, after he had secured the understanding of the Presidency and the Military high command through high level diplomacy, it was a beauty to see the mutuality with which Senators Ned Nwoko of Delta North, Joel Onowakpor of Delta South and Ede Dafinone of Delta Central, being representatives of the state at the federal level, followed up to discuss the particular terms and conditions for the release of King Ikolo.

It was also understandable that he was handed over to Senator Dafinone, being the Senator representing Delta Central Senatorial District to which his Okuama belongs, and because a surety is particularly required to guarantee the production of the subject, should he be required for further questioning.

The unity of response by various leaders of the state was testified to by King Ikolo himself as he especially thanked Governor Oborevwori, the three Senators representing Delta State, the Secretary to the State Government, Dr Kingsley Emu, the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Prince Johnson Erijo and Oborevwori’s former Chief of Staff while as Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Olorogun (Dr) Ebenezer Okorodudu, for their love, commitment and contributions towards his release.

It is also noteworthy to have heard from the king that he was placed in a decent facility and was well treated during the period of questioning, and to have also heard the military say that, so far from the questioning, there is no evidence about his culpability. That is quite assuring and feels better than having to have been shielded.

Even on the plight of the innocent villagers, Governor Oborevwori repeatedly assured that no harm will go their way beyond the immediate reactions by military after the incident occurred.

“We want to assure everybody that there would be no more attack on the villages. Even if that may have happened in the past.

“We know that those who are culpable would be brought to book, but the innocent citizens would not be attacked,” he assured while speaking with State House correspondents after his meeting with Mr President.

With tensions now simmered and with his recent visit to Okuama, he has also indicated that the next phase of the process is the return and resettlement of the people.

“We have followed due process in the whole incident. The people have been buried, the king that was detained has been released yesterday and today I am here to see what happened in Okuama community.

“Let me again reiterate Mr President’s promise that no innocent person would be victimised and you can see that, from that time till now, there has been no harassment of citizens of this community.

“I have come to see how the innocent people of this community can be reintegrated back with the cooperation of the military. We know it’s a big loss to them but we have to follow due process. They have been very supportive and they have kept to their promise that innocent people will not be victimised.

“I want to assure the people of Okuama, there is no point running away from your community. We are going to bring you back to your community. It’s only those that are involved that the military are looking for.”

Oborevwori’s sequence of engagements in handling the Okuama matter assuredly describes a Governor with a great sense of diplomacy, strategic thinking and huge skill in problem solving.

You Might Also Like

She Was an Amazon Who Left Indelible Marks — Ayorinde Pays Tribute to Late Ambassador Adefope

Chief Bolaji Ayorinde Mourns Olubadan, Hails Monarch’s Peaceful Legacy

IMSUAA 2025 Convention Mascot: A Symbol Of Love, Unity And Cultural Diversity

Lagos Hosts Groundbreaking Revenue Recovery Summit

CFE Foundation Seeks Sponsors to Sustain Humanitarian Programs Amidst Funding Challenges

TAGGED: Okuama, Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori
INadminNG April 23, 2024 April 23, 2024
Share This Article
Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Whatsapp LinkedIn Telegram Email Print
Previous Article Chekas United Boss Donates Bus For Players and Coaching Crew
Next Article Madojiemu U-15 School Athletics Tourney: Sponsor Welcomes Athletes, Officials To Edo
about us

Independent News Express (iNews Express), a publication of 4Ds Nigeria Limited, is birthed out of the desires of the founding fathers to report News as it is.

We value Professionalism, Excellence, Service, Creativity and Integrity.

The Company

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy & Policy

Quick Links

  • Advertise with us
  • Newsletters
  • Deal

Categories

Find Us on Socials

© Independent News Express. All Rights Reserved.
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?