Tension In Delta, Edo Communities , As Gunmen Injure Peaceful Protester, Kidnap Three Others

There is pandemonium in the border communities of Delta and Edo States as gunmen have allegedly shot and injured a peaceful protester ,while three others have been kidnapped in Kolokolo Community in Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area of Edo State.

 

It was learnt that the incident occurred last Sunday evening May 19 when indigenes of Kolokolo Community were on a peaceful protest against an alleged marginalization by an Oil firm, Sahara Enageed Resource Limited.

 

The gunmen in an attempt to rescue an oil badge belonging to the oil and gas firm, stormed the community with about five speedboats in a Commando like manner, shooting sporadically.

 

In the process, they injured one person and kidnapped three others, even as the incident has caused serious tension within the border community between Koko in Warri North Local Government Area of Delta and Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area in Edo State.

 

 

Kolokolo Community Youth President-General, Comrade Sunny Etchie in a chat with newsmen said ” but for the intervention of the military operatives from the Joint Task Force,JTF under the 19 Battalion, Nigerian Army in Koko who stormed the area after receiving a distress call, the casualties and damage would have been higher.

 

Etchie said the incident took place on Sunday night shortly after leaders of the community returned from the office of the Directorate of State Service,DSS to tender their grievances against Sahara Enageed Resource Ltd which had been allegedly shying away from its responsibilities in the community.

 

Etchie identified the victim who was allegedly shot as one Ayowe with pellets pumped into his left limb and one of the three kidnapped as Ajatiton Edwin, who later escaped after his boat engine, a boat and cash were confiscated by the assailants.

 

He added that:“ around 6:30 in the evening, my people called me from the village that all of them were inside the bush.

 

“Asking what happened, they narrated how the Ajoki people, led by their youth chairman, one Isaac Ajatiton, came with two speed boats: two from Ajoki and three from Ologbo.

 

“The JTF have tried their best on this issue, they intervened and they told us to release the badge and I even called the crew members to come and carry the badge on Monday morning, before we saw the sponsored thugs.

 

 

“They shot one in the arm. Then the one I sent to take food to the guys that were looking after the badge to prevent vandalisation was kidnapped and released the next morning after enough beating.

 

“We took him to the hospital and treated him. The place is no longer safe. Government should come and intervene. We don’t have police station here, no vigilante.

 

“We don’t have anything. We reported the matter and those we could identify among the assailants to Zone 5 and I believe the investigation is on going.

 

“The shot victim, who’s currently in pains, said he was only employed to secure the badge from vandalism when the assailants swooped on him and shot him just as he thanked God for his escape.

 

“I am lucky to be alive this day to narrate my survival from those armed men. I was one of the security men that was guarding the boat.

 

“All of a sudden, I saw some gunmen in more than four speed boats shooting at us and we were not armed.

 

“They shot me and I jumped into the river with the bullet wound; I was there for more than three hours before my employer came to my rescue. And that was how I survived,” the survivor enthused.

 

A visibly-shaken octogenarian, Felicia Ayokuche, accused their Itsekiri brethren from Ajoki and Ologbo Communities for allowing themselves to be used by an external enemy to kill them, calling on the government to secure Kolokolo as well as resolve the imbroglio they have with Sahara Enageed Resource Ltd before things go out of hands.

 

Soldiers from the 19 Battalion, Nigerian Army, are said to be on the trail of the guntotting assailants who invaded the squalid Community, shot one and kidnapped three.

 

A senior officer in the battalion, who refused to disclose his identity, said soldiers had been monitoring the peaceful protests of Kolokolo Community before the shooting just as he vowed to deal “mercilessly” with gun bearers in the area.

 

Authorities of Sahara Enageed Resource Ltd and leaders of Ajoki and Ologbo communities could not be reached for comments as at the time of filing this report.