Displaced residents of Obelle community in Emohua Local Government Area in Rivers State have called for help from Nigerian authorities and the security agencies to restore normalcy in their community.
The residents, including school children and women, had fled the community for safety following persistent gun battles by rival armed gangs that have left about 23 persons dead.
A fleeing resident who witnessed the gang wars, Mr. Maxwell Opara (not his real name), who begged to be anonymous for the sake of his safety), said the random shootings in the gun battles that began on February 6, this year was carried out by an aggrieved faction of an armed group in the community over the sharing of proceeds from the sales of oil pipes belonging to Shell Petroleum Development Comp-any Limited, SPDC. The oil pipes had been lying desolate after they were excavated in the community.
The wars, which were over the control of community resources, began in September last year, when a group in the community allegedly hijacked the community leadership and imposed their own Community Development Committee Chairman, Ovunda Obodo and Richard Amadi as the Youth President. It was alleged that this duo connived to sell oil pipes.
They first sent a letter to SPDC seeking its approval to sell off the obsolete oil pipes and got approval. The said group sold the pipes but did not disclose the exact proceeds of sale to the chiefs, elders and other key stakeholders of the community.
The group shared the proceeds from the oil pipes’ sale amongst a few of them, each of whom was said to have received N400,000. This polarized the group between those who got and those that did not get. Those who did not get became infuriated. The leader of this aggrieved faction sent out a town crier to demand that the proceeds of the oil pipes sales be returned to the community for the development of the community.
When it was revealed that the pipe sale fetched even more money than was declared, the leader of the faction that benefited from the sale identified as Naked, became angry and asked the CDC chairman and youth president to give him more money. They then topped his money to N1 million.
After he was given up to N1 million, he revolted and demanded that the entire sales proceeds be handed over to the community.
Opara said the masterminds of the oil pipe sales refused to hand the money over to the community heads.
Meanwhile, the leader (called Cairo) of the armed faction, who did not receive money, sent out town criers through the entire community, urging that the imposed leadership of the CDC chairman and youth president should step down, noting that they were corrupt leaders and that had embezzled funds that meant for the entire community.
This development raised tension in the community and prompted shooting amongst armed gang members in the community. This incident occurred in September last year 2024.
To douse the tension in the community, Obelle and Ibaa (a neighboring community) council of chiefs, alongside other stakeholders came together to hear from the aggrieved parties. After the hearing, a date was scheduled for judgment. On the said judgment day, the peace group found the CDC chairman, the youth president and Naked, guilty.
Mr. Opara said the group that did not get money, were very much still angry, so Naked left the community for fear of being lynched.
Naked returned back to the community in November, built a camp in the bush and recruited more boys to join his armed gang group. His new recruits were mostly very young boys.
The armed gang leader and his newly recruited boys got involved in kidnap along Isiokpo/ Elele road. According to the source, the kidnappers mapped a road channel for their arms and exit as well as to make money to buy more arms and ammunition.
“So what it means is that an early warning sign was cleared that they were gathering money to buy ammunition. Their mission was to wage war against those who didn’t get the money (money from the sale of SPDC oil pipes).
“So they stayed in the bush from November to December 2024. During this period they kidnapped and collected ransom. They killed some of the kidnapped victims in the bush whose relatives couldn’t pay their ransom.”
The armed gang faction who didn’t get proceeds from the sale of SPDC oil pipes attempted to eliminate Naked in the first week of December but failed. Their leader, Cairo whose real name was given as Chibuzor Yen-Ke, went into the bush in search of Naked so he could kill him, but didn’t find Naked. He came into the village and killed his own family relative, who was a member of Obelle OSPAC (community vigilance group) in the presence of his family members.
That same day, he also shot and killed another of his relative in the bush. It was alleged that his (Cairo’s ) for killing his second relative (also a male), was because the relative kept malice with him.
The Chairman of Ikwerre local government area, Hon. Israel Abosi, had to begin to investigate those behind the kidnapping along Isiokpo/ Elele road as it became a serious concern. The investigating team was headed by a retired deputy commissioner of police, Peter Nwagbara from Elele Alimini and made up of representatives of the DPO, Rumuji, the Army Commander Ibaa, civil defence commander and others.
But Cairo and Naked refused to honor invitations of the team, despite attendance by members of their armed groups.
So, the issues were not completely resolved and tension continued to build up. The investigation threatened to declare Cairo and Naked wanted. But they refused to show up.
A source said Ikwerre council chairman had to involve the anti-kidnapping unit of the Nigeria Police Force and OSPAC to raid the bush between Isiokpo and Elele, where they discovered that the faction led by Cairo was camped behind Elele prison farm, which the joint team raided and caught three members of the gang that were handed over to the police.
The Ikwerre Chairman subsequently dissolved the community development committee of Obelle and sacked the CDC chairman and the youth president. But both men refused to vacate the positions. Opara said, they were hoping to stay back to benefit from payouts from the PIA funds to the community.
Meanwhile, they began to make life unbearable for the people living in Obelle community. They warned residents to leave or risk being killed. Residents who had nowhere to go resorted to camp by Obelle junction in Elele. Some took refuge in the home of their friends and relatives from other communities.
The source also revealed that Cairo imposed a levy N50,000 on women who wished to go into the bush to farm.
Mrs. Dimkpa (not real name), a widow from Obelle, whose infant baby was kidnapped, told National Point that some families from Obelle were taking refuge in her house in Elele.
She called for an urgent intervention of the security agencies in Nigeria, to restore normalcy in Obelle community so that children could return to school and farmers resume their farming.
Rivers State Police Public Relations Officer, Mrs. Grace Iringe-Koko, had acknowledged the story of unrest in Obelle community but she did not elaborate on how the command was responding to it.
