Delta: One feared killed, 10 others injured over election into a committee

One person has allegedly been feared killed, while 10 others were said to have been injured in the early hours yesterday in Emu-Ebendo, Ndokwa West Local Government Area of Delta State, following the election into the community committee.

Eye witness said opposing groups allegedly clashed over the election after heated argument that ensued.

The election, it was reliably gathered, was coming few months after the immediate past chairman of Ndokwa West, Mr. Chris Osakwe lifted the suspension he placed on youth activities in the community.

It was gathered that trouble started when one of the candidates for the youth chairmanship position and his supporters called for the postponement of the election, a development which did not go down well with the opposition party that insisted that the election must be held.

A source in the community who did not want his name in the, said “before the day of election, there were gunshots renting the air during the nightfall leading to the withdrawal of a chairmanship aspirant from the race before the election because of fear” adding that the President General of the community was addressing the delegates when the place became rowdy and chaotic.

It was further gathered that the community President General (name withheld) was allegedly attacked, and was wounded on the leg, while six house were razed.

But efforts to speak with the President-General by our reporter was not successful as at the time of this report.

Apart from the houses allegedly razed, the angry opposition members allegedly brought out properties of some persons living in rented houses, and set them ablaze.

Expectedly, a source who did not want his name in the print, said: “as the crisis was going on, it was discovered that one of the youths in the community was missing, and could not be reached on his mobile phone”.

The missing person was later found dead, and his body currently deposited at the mortuary in Kwale General Hospital while the injured persons are currently receiving treatment at various hospitals.

But in a swift reaction, the Police Commissioner in the State, Mr. Zanna Ibrahim, confirmed to journalists in Asaba that one person was killed, adding that the crisis was due to the opposing parties.

He said that security has been beefed in the community to maintain law and order as investigation was ongoing.

Meanwhile, the Chairman, National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Delta State Council, Chief Ifeanyi Obi, has called on its members to be careful of the state and report such persons to law enforcement agencies.

Chief Obi, in Asaba, said that the call was necessary because, some persons posing as haulage fee collectors few days ago attacked members of NURTW at Ughelli South Local Government Area of the state with machetes and other dangerous weapons, which has led to the hospitalization of two members of the drivers’ union.

According to him, “some persons are going about in the name of haulage collector, about five days ago, they went to Otu-jeremi in Ughelli South Local Government Area and tried to kill our members, at the end, God saved our people, thought, two of them are in the hospital now as sustained injuries due to cuts from their attackers’ machetes”.

“No accredited revenue collector goes to collect revenue with machetes and other dangerous weapons, we know these people,

since the coming of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, they have come with three different unions which they wanted to use to cause trouble in our state, but, because, we are law abiding people,

we have always resisted them through due process and peaceful moves”, he said, adding, “our members should look out for these persons and when they see them, they should report to the police”.

He continued, “nobody has approached us that he is going to collect haulage fees, when government contracts such revenue collection outside our union, the contractors will come to us, in our meetings,

we will sensitize our members and we will device means of ensuring harmonious relationship and how to pay, otherwise, we can collect such revenue and remit to the government to avoid any hitches”.

Chief Obi decried a situation where people want to cause dissatisfaction in the state by causing crisis in NURTW, observing, “It is unfortunate that they go about boasting that it there is fight in the national union,

there will be confusion in the state, we have gone beyond that stage in national union, we are no longer fighting, we meet regularly and those who think they can cause trouble in our union should know that we will resist them through democratic and legal means”.

“We will continue to support Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to succeed, we will not to anything that will hurt his government, he is working and we are seeing it, the Federal Government look for solution to the traffic situation at the Asaba end of the Niger Bridge Head.

Nosa Akenzua, Asaba