Ijaw and Urhobo youths today staged a peaceful walk in the city of Warri as they called on the Delta State Governor, Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa to implement previous peace committee reports to put an end to the lingering crisis between Aladja and Ogbe-Ijoh Communities in Udu and Warri South-West Local Government Areas of Delta State, DAILY POST is reporting.
The youths chanted solidarity songs and beared placards with different inscriptions calling for a permanent truce.
Addressing newsmen, Convener of the Peace Walk, Williams Walemu Jnr. expressed worries over the killings between the two sister communities.
Walemu emphasized that the civil society groups comprising Niger Delta Peace Volunteers, NDPV; Ijaw People’s Development Initiative, IPDI; Urhobo Progressive Union, UPU (Youth Wing), Concerned Ijaw Transformation Ambassadors, CITA; Committee For Rural Development Movement among other Niger Delta Activists were highly disturbed, hence the groups have chosen to demonstrate through the peace walk as a means of sensitizing members of the warring communities that they are one.
Walemu said, “Ijaws and Urhobos have cohabited for ages and at no cause they should engage one another in a warfare.”
Walemu also urged the Delta State Governor, Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa to urgently implement previous peace committee reports to end the conflict between the two communities and bring lasting peace.
On his part, National President of Ijaw People’s Development Initiative, IPDI, Comrade Austin Ozobo threatened to hold the governor responsible should there be any reported case of killing among the two communities in the open.
The President of Urhobo Progressives Union(Youth Wing) Comrade Ovie Anthony Igho stated that leaders from the two communities should stop playing politics with the crisis.
Igho stressed that the Ijaws and Urhobos are inter-married and had lived in peace for years.
“Urhobo youths are peace loving people, we will continue to live in peace with Ijaw People in the state.”
High Chief Wellington Bobo from Gbaramatu Kingdom; ArchBishop, Temekoga; Comrade Ezekiel Kagbala also spoke during the peace walk.
In his reaction, the Director of Governor’s Annex in Warri, Mr. F.O Okwujere promised to convey the message of the youths and stakeholders to the governor.
He also stated the Governor Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa-led Delta State Government has truly tried its best in handling the lingering conflict between the two communities.
Okwujere particularly commended the initiators of the peace walk , while urging them to take the same message to the warring communities.
