Residents of Warri, the bubbling oil city in Delta State, woke up on Sunday, June 17, to another round of bloodbath following a renewed war between the Urhobo and Itsekiri youths. People have fled the area, the second time in one month. Military authorities said soldiers had been deployed to the Okere-Urhobo section of the city. The renewed hostilities between the Okere-Urhobo and Itsekiri youths truncated the fragile peace that returned to the area some three weeks ago.

Victoria Tanko, hair dresser and native of Pankshin, in Plateau State, who lives at No 2/4, Ighorue Street said that on Saturday night, May 26, some youths came demanding for a ransome and threatened to set her house ablaze. She said she and her co-tenants hurriedly gathered two thousand naira to appease the youths. She told Newswatch that after giving out the amount, she thought they had escaped the terror of the youths. They soon found they were wrong. She said a few minutes later, the boys came with petrol and matches and set the house ablaze while the tenants were inside. She said the flats upstairs were completely razed down and nothing was saved. One man simply identified as Papa Osa (Osa's father) was said to have lost N25,000 in the fire. "Papa Osa had only a pair of trousers and a shirt on him and today all his sweat for the past years are gone," Tanko said.

Tanko said that she did not understand why the house was burnt down. No Urhobo or Itsekiri lives in the compound. The landlady ran away from the house when it was first burnt down in the 1999 crisis. "If they say they are fighting because of the proposed creation of a new local government out of the present Warri South local government, what has that got to do with our compound?" she wondered. Tanko plans to go back to her own state soon because, "though there could be crisis in Jos anytime, like any other area, it would not be to the extent of going to kill and maim innocent people."

Esther Eyefian, the landlady, now resides in a room apartment at 62B Enerhin Road. Eyefian told Newswatch in Warri that she is diabetic and hypertensive and lacks other means of livelihood. "Please, help me beg the governor to come to my aid. He has a mother and a wife; if they go through this kind of agony, I know he, (the governor), will not like it," she pleaded.

Genesis of the crisis has been traced to a petition sent to the state governor by a group of concerned Itsekiri, in which they objected to the creation of two proposed local governments out of the present Warri South local government to be known as Okere-Urhobo and Agbarha/Okere-Urhobo local government areas. They argued that the Otor-Orere extension of Okere-Urhobo kingdom proposed as headquarters of Okumagba local government area was erroneously released to the Olodi Oki and Ighogbadu families by the Delta State governor, which letter of release was signed by S.O. Oseghe, permanent secretary, directorate of lands and survey on January 14, 2000. They also claimed in the petition that the said piece of land was bound to become a matter of litigation as various families in Okere were already preparing for a battle royale over it. They therefore asked the committee chairman to "ignore their spurious and sinister proposals for the creation of the contraptions they call Okere- Urhobo and Agbarha/Okere-Urhobo local government councils out of the present Warri South local government area."

The petitioners further requested members of that committee to visit them so as to cross-check the facts presented in their letter. On the other hand, Itsekiri leaders of thought blamed the eruption of violence in Warri on both Delta house of assembly and Benjamin Okumagba, the president-general of Urhobo Progress Union. In a three-page statement signed by S.O. Urunmatsoma and I.O. Jemide, they argued that Okumagba and the house of assembly have been uncontrollably over-zealous in their attempt to create new local government areas in Warri in a do-or-die fashion as if there are some extraneous forces moving them in that dangerous direction. They said, "were it not so, we do not see how or why Delta house of assembly committee on local government and Okumagba should continue to pursue the creation of new local government councils out of Warri urban in the present Warri South local government." While acknowledging the power of the house at making laws and authorising an appropriate person or body of persons to prescribe the area over which a local government council may exercise authority as proposed for in the 1999 constitution, they argued that the assembly by itself "is not the competent body to prescribe the area over which a local government may exercise authority as envisaged by the constitution."

They argued further that "even if they have the power to do so any attempt to clearly and practically define areas over which two so-called Urhobo ethnic local government councils may exercise authority within the Warri urban is like fishing in trouble and violence and law- makers should not encourage such a wrong step."

They advised that any creation of any local government must follow the laid down rules in section 8(3) (9)(a) and (11) of the 1999 constitution which states that any request for local government creation must be supported by at least two-thirds majority of members of the house of assembly and local government councils in respect of the area. They described the visit of the assembly men to Warri as a design to "satisfy and meet the intolerable ambition of Okumagba to have a local government where he can set up his fake and fabricated Okere-Urhobo kingdom in Warri."

They accused the house of assembly of trying to create Okere-Urhobo local government without a valid request for such creation, adding that their efforts amounted to abuse of power, incompetence and legislative lawlessness. "We have seen enough destruction and death from local government creation in Warri," they said, and called on the house not to allow itself to be influenced by political upstarts who are bent at all cost on carving empires for themselves.

Okumagba reacted to the Warri crisis in a press release issued June 2. In the document, he said "very many Nigerians, especially indigenes and non indigenes of Warri and its environs were shocked to hear from the electronic media as well as the newspaper publication on page 7 of the Vanguard of Tuesday May 22 about the orchestrated protest of the Olu and his Itsekiri-dominated Warri South local government area against the creation of any new local government council area from the present Warri South local government council area."

This agitation by the Olu and his entire Itsekiri people, through the chairman and councillors, Okumagba said, was as a result of the formal application by the people of Okere- Urhobo kingdom and the people of Agbarha kingdom to the Delta house of assembly requesting for the creation of a new local government of their own respectively.

He said: "We the people of Okere-Urhobo kingdom did not apply for any new local government council area to be created for the Olu and his Itsekiri people, nor did we ask that any new local government council area to be created for us, the people of Okere-Urhobo kingdom on our God-given land founded by our ancestors who founded Okere- Urhobo kingdom from immemorial."

He traced the outbreak of the crisis to an incident on May 25. He said while his people were awaiting the arrival of members of the Delta house of assembly committee on the creation of new local government council areas May 25, for the purpose of inspecting all the necessary facilities for new local council, two of their youths were sent to the Warri South local government secretariat to pilot the parliamentarians to the appropriate location. He said they heard that the visitors were prevented by thugs and women allegedly sent by the Olu and his Itsekiri-controlled Warri South local government council from entering.

Okumagba said these thugs were reported to have chanted war songs, while violently firing gun shots into Okere kingdom which injured many people. He alleged that this provoked the Okere-Urhobo youths who tried to stop them and this caused the confrontation and confusion between the two groups, which led to the burning of some houses in Okere kingdom on Saturday. He said a lot of dangerous weapons and ammunitions including bazookas and petrol bombs from a shrine behind the Olu's palace were recovered by the law enforcement agents led by an army commander.

In a press conference, Akpodiogaga Sunny Emeyese, chairman, house committee local government, chieftaincy affairs and security laid blame on the crisis that took place in Warri May 26, on the door steps of the Itsekiri leaders. He said his committee went to Warri South and South-West local government areas on a fact-finding mission to assess the facilities on ground as a result of the request for local government areas by the people. He said the committee was prevented from entering the secretariat of Warri South local government area by protesting people from Itsekiri nation who do not support the creation of a new local government from the present Warri South local government council.

According to him, it is the duty of the committee to call on the local government chairman of any local government visited whose responsibility it is to take the committee to the community requesting for a local government. He said the committee and indeed the whole house was embarrassed by the verbal attack by the Itsekiri on the pages of newspapers.

He said the committee did not at any time keep anybody in the dark, stressing that 104 applications were received by the committee from groups calling for the creation of a new local government council. He said "we believe that the presence of the committee, a harmless committee was not sufficient to spark off that kind of violence." He believed there was a pent-up anger among the indigenes in the area which was not known to the committee.

"I make bold to say here that the leaders of the Itsekiri nation have to be blamed over the Warri crisis because they knew what exactly the committee was coming to Warri to do. They equally knew the constitutional provisions of creating new local government as they were in the picture of the activities of the committee from its inception," he said.

Sorry it took me so long to respond, I hardly read any section other than the main political forum hence I just came across this a few hours ago.

All I can say about this is that the Ijaws, Itsekiris, Urhobos and Isokos have been peaceful neighbors for centuries. In the face of hunger, all this so called scuffle, is a result of scrambling for the few breadcrumbs that the Hausa/Fulani threw at them. This has been the divide and rule tactics that the invading Hausa/Fulani government of Nigeria have consistently employed to pit brother against brother. The challenge is to refocus these groups into realizing that the real enemy is The Hausa/Fulani rogues ruling from Abuja.

All this fight about local government or not will be a non issue if everyone was allowed to take their destiny in their own hands. Most people in the US do not know where or what city is the capital of the state they reside in. Given the size and economic prowess, how many people would have thought New York City, Los Angeles or Atlanta is not the capital of New York, California or Georgia respectively.

To buttress this point, I will take you down memory lane (and those from poor large families can attest to this). At dinner, there are usually one large bowl of Eba and an equally large bowl of soup with or without one or two pieces of meat between the usually eight or more siblings gathered around it. Ones satisfaction usually depends on how fast one can eat or who is the larger bully of each of the siblings. Contrast this to the American situation, where you virtually have to hold a gun to a kid’s head so they can eat their food and stop toying with it.

I guess the point I am trying to make is that depravation creates a survival of the fittest syndrome; hence brothers turn against brothers and sisters against sister in other to survive. This is just a sign of frustration because the bounds that bind brothers are usually stronger than the temporary frustration that seeks to divide. We also saw this type of frustration when the Israelites turned against each other soon after their escape from Pharaohs Egypt that prompted the so-called “An Eye For An Eye” law.