Soldiers who
laid siege to Oporoza community, traditional headquarters of Gbaramatu
kingdom, Warri South-West Local Government Area, Delta State, at 1.52
am, started shooting indiscriminately at about 8.44 am, causing more
confusion in the riverine town.
Villagers, who ran into the forest on
sighting them with gunboats were yet to return, as soldiers, who came in
search of ex-militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, and
members of the Niger Delta Avengers, have taken over the community.
Ijaw leader, Chief Godspower Gbenekama,
told Vanguard on phone at about 9.00 am: “Soldiers have started shooting
in Oporoza as I speak to you now, I do not know the casualty, but they
are shooting right now, the whole town is in turmoil.”
His words: “I am crying on behalf of my
people, we have been saying before now that we do not know what the
military is looking for in Oporoza, they have come two times before now
in the last few weeks. We said then that they were looking for excuse to
start shooting, now they are shooting, we do not know what will happen
after the shooting.”
National president of Ijaw People’s
Development Initiative, Mr. Austin Ozobo, also raised the alarm that
soldiers were shooting in Oporoza and called on the Federal Government
to call the soldiers to order.
A villager, who called our reporter on
phone, said: “The military is currently shooting randomly in Oporoza but
we do not know whether it was aimed at anybody because we are still in
the forest. We ran into the forest this morning.
0 comments:
Post a Comment