LAGOS FEBRUARY 14TH (URHOBOTODAY)-Urhobo community in Kaduna, under the umbrella of Concerned Kokori Indigenes has condemned the recent call by Secretary to Delta State Government (SSG), Delta State, Ovuozourie Macaulay for continuous military occupation of Kokori an Urhobo community.
The group also denied the allegation of the people of Kokori habouring kidnappers and armed tobbers.
A statement signed by the Secretary General of the association, Emma Akpoya, noted that the call by Macaulay for continuous siege by soldiers on the community is inhuman to humanity, even after some of the boys have been captured and charged to court.
According to the statement, “the recent interview of the Secretary to Delta State Government, Ovuozourie Macauly, where he endorsed the continuous siege on Kokori, an Urhobo community, and a major oil producing community, for the past eight months by soldiers, is to say the least, unbecoming of a highly placed public servant, who desires to ensure peaceful co-existence and even development of the state.
“As concerned indigenes of Kokori community, who have been forced out of our ancestral homes and now living like refugees all over the country, we are compelled to react to the blatant falsehood contained in his statement published recently where he said that the community is harbouring kidnappers even after the so-called kingpin and his men have been captured and charged to court.
“For the record, Kokori is a peace-loving community and highly agrarian. The indigenes are cerebral and urbane, with a sizeable youth population, who have been living peacefully even in the midst of abject neglect by the Emmanuel Uduaghan-led government.
“However, while not holding brief for criminals or violators of the laws of the land, including kidnappers, and armed robbers, who abound everywhere, especially, in the South-South and South-East axis of the nation, it is absurd to impute that Kokori community is a harbour for criminals thereby, criminalising every indigene where only an insignificant few were engaged in these unwholesome acts.”