ALADJA AND OGBE-IJOH: RUIN AS BROTHERS GO TO WAR OVER LAND

Aladja and Ogbe-Ijoh communities are currently enmeshed in another round of primordial communal crisis over a piece of land and the location of the headquarters of Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State.

It appears communities in the country and particularly in oil-rich Delta State are yet to learn from the mistakes of history. In spite of several marital ties binding the people together for ages, on March 24, some 20 years after a similar communal crisis occurred, Aladja and Ogbe-Ijoh communities went berserk again, going after each other’s throats. Read more at:

 But for the timely intervention of soldiers drafted to the scene, after operatives of the Nigeria Police were allegedly overpowered and fled, the recent crisis, as gathered, would have consumed the twin communities. Not even the fact that the mother of the present pere (king) of Ogbe-Ijoh, HRM Couple Oromoni, the  Amakosu Mobene III, hails from Aladja, could see off the crisis. 

Although neighbours, Aladja and Ogbe-Ijoh belong to two different local government areas with the former located in Udu LGA and the latter, Warri South West. The two communities, particularly Ogbe-Ijoh land, have beneath them huge oil and gas reserves. The kingdom is also host to multibillion-dollar-oil installations and facilities of multinationals operating in the region. 
Reports said the Thursday, March 24 crisis left no fewer than five people, including a soldier, sustaining varying degrees of life-threatening injuries, as well as destruction of properties worth a fortune. 

There were conflicting reports as to how the recent bloodshed started between the two communities who have been neighbours for over 100 years and have deeply engaged in inter-marriage. A version of the reports said trouble started on morning of March 22 when some youths from Ogbe-Ijoh allegedly molested some women from Aladja who were working in their farms cultivated on a disputed land in Ogbe-Ijoh. 

Another version said Aladja youths had unreasonably been obsessed with barricading the only access road to Ogbe-Ijoh, which passed through Aladja, and extorted money from residents of Ogbe-Ijoh conveying building materials and other wares to their community.

Angered by the alleged inhuman treatment meted out on their women, youths from Aladja of the Urhobo stock, instead of taking the war to Ogbe-Ijoh, decided to barricade the only access road linking the two communities. It was gathered that the angry youths prevented the Ogbe-Ijohs from accessing their community, thereby leading to a free-for-all. 

The action of the boys, it was gathered, was astonishingly fuelled by the alleged refusal by the police to halt the activities of the rampaging Aladja youths who were allegedly armed with charms and charging towards Ogbe-Ijoh. The Ogbe-Ijoh youths alleged that houses of their kinsmen, who were resident in Aladja for years, had been looted and torched, just as the youths of Aladja made the same allegation against the Ogbe-Ijoh youths. 

Besides the land in dispute, sources also said the Aladjas who claim they are the landlords accommodating the Ogbe-Ijohs, have not been positively disposed to the Ogbe-Ijoh community assuming the status of a local government headquarters given its attendant social amenities. 

Ogbe-Ijoh, which is divided into six villages (or quarters) namely: Arontegha, Perebiri, Ikiandumu, Oturubiri, Lotiobiri and Tambiri, is the headquarters of the Warri South West Local Government Area while Aladja, the acclaimed landlord, has remained an obscure, underdeveloped community often deridingly described as  notorious for only African traditional magical powers. 

Lots of crises were associated with how the headquarters was eventually sited at Ogbe-Ijoh as it was one of the major (if not the main) factor that led to the Warri crises in the late 90s between the Itsekiris and the Ijaws, when the Ijaws went wild after the headquarters was said to have been relocated to Escravos (Ogidigben). 

Hence, the two communities, which have been living peacefully together before 1996 when late General Sanni Abacha created the local government area, became sworn enemies when the Warri South West LGA was sited in Ogbe-Ijoh.

Meanwhile, checks at the two communities last weekend revealed that the two communities, especially Ogbe-Ijoh wore the looks of a ghost town. The streets were virtually deserted following fear of the unknown. Fierce-looking armed soldiers were sighted taking strategic positions to forestall further breakdown of law and order. 
Strange, suspicious faces moving into the community through the Warri River (the only available route now) were scrutinised before gaining access. 

A few people were seen around the Ogbe-Ijoh concrete jetty. Most of them wore long faces. Few women were seen sitting dejectedly by their provision wares beside the jetty. 

As a matter of fact, schools in the two communities have been shut down in the wake of the communal crisis. A group of boys were seen gathered, obviously reflecting on the situation in hushed tones. No one wants to run afoul of the fierce-looking soldiers as they declined comments.