In a bid to resolve the age long land dispute between Oleh, Ozoro headquarters of Isoko South, North Local Government Areas the Delta state government has charged the warring communities to stay off the disputed land within the time frame given by the state government to facilitate the peace process.
The Special Adviser to the State Government on Peace Building and Conflict Resolution, Chief Edwin Uzor gave this charge recently at a meeting held at the Union’s Secretariat, comprising of Isoko Development Union (IDU) executives, traditional rulers, community leaders, representatives of lsoko North and South Local Government Councils.
in his address he said “I urge all the parties present at this meeting to take the message from the state government back to your traditional rulers who could not attend the meeting due to the short notice given and please do not blow it out of proportion. Most importantly, stay off the disputed land within the time frame given by the state government as all mercenaries has been put in place to speedily facilitate the peace process. Anyone found violating the orders will be persecuted without prejudice by the state government.”
The Chairman of Isoko South Local Government Area, Sir Itiako Ikpokpo who was ably represented by the Secretary of the Council, Kola Dennis Obrogo recommended that both communities should sheath their sword, cease fire and submit themselves to the peace process wholeheartedly. I am optimistic that the state, local government and Isoko Development Union (IDU) will make all deliberate effort to finally resolve this lingering issue.
“The families involved know the boundary, if we engage them seriously, we will discover that there is a variance and that variance won’t be more than one mile and this one mile can be managed especially now that the state, local government and IDU is involved. We are not going to use the same approach; we will do all our investigations and not sweep anything under the carpet so we can get to the root of this problem in order to restore peace to the communities”.
While propagating same peaceful entreaties, the Isoko North Local Government Council representative, Kome Ozue harped on the urgency of the definite steps that should be taken noting that the successful outcome will be an added advantage to the present leadership of the local government.
The President General of the Isoko Development Union (IDU) High Chief Iduh Amadhe thanked the security operatives for their efforts while encouraging them to intensify patrol along the disputed portion to ensure that no one goes against government directives adding that those involed in negative publications should desist from it.
