BOUNDARY DISPUTE: Delta Community Decries Maltreatment By Soldiers

"Caution your men and advise them to stick to maintaining law and order and not try to make matters worse for the already bemused citizens." Group tells Military, Police.

"Any more unruly acts from them will push us to take legal actions against the military and police authorities. And to declare a media war on them."

Aladja Community in Udu Local Government Area of Delta State today  said they are vexed with the maltreatment allegedly being meted on their citizens by the military and policemen drafted to the area in the wake of the November, 21, 2021 attack on Aladja by Ogbe-Ijoh people.

The leadership of the Social Cultural Group, Erhuvwu Emo Aladja led by Comrade Kingsley Kpadamrophe made the assertion in a statement today.

The group is calling on the military and Police authorities to caution their men and advise them to stick to maintaining law and order and not try to make matters worse for the already bemused citizens. 

It warned that, "Any more unruly acts from them will push us to take legal actions against the military and police authorities. And to declare a media war on them."

It would be recalled that the age long inter communal crisis between Aladja and Ogbe-Ijoh was brought to an end by a Peace group, the Aladja and Ogbe-Ijoh Peace Vanguard and efforts of many stakeholders but relationships between the two communities broke down irrevocably when one Pastor Sylvester Yerinbide, a indigene of Ogbe-Ijoh,met his untimely death in the hands of unknown assailants which the Ogbe-Ijoh people believed were from Aladja. But the Aladja Community denied any involvement in the death of the clergy man. 

The Aladja people said, "As this accusations and counter accusations went on, Ogbe-Ijoh Community gave the Delta State Government and security agencies a fourteen day ultimatum to fish out the killers of Yerinbide or they would attack Aladja which they did on the 21st November, 2021 a day after the expiration of the ultimatum. 

"This led the military to impose a dusk to dawn curfew on both Communities but was later relaxed to 10pm to 6am curfew."

According to the Aladja people, "At the wake of the curfew the overzealous military men broke into people's homes under the guise of effecting the compliance of the curfew. 

"This almost led to a face off between the youth of Aladja and the military before the leadership of the community waded into it. 

"The recent uproar is the modus operandi of the military men,many of which are overzealous. 

"Once the military get to wherever people saw them and ran away they resort to breaking of properties around the vicinity. 

"Not only that they go into the nooks and cranny of the community in search of defaulters instead of remaining on the major roads and streets. To the extent they prevent people from coming out of their homes to ease themselves at night."