Oil theft: Tension as rival gangs clash claims 2 in Bayelsa

Palpable fear has gripped residents of Ondewari community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa state, as crisis and clash between two rival armed gangs, as well as soldiers deployed to the troubled community has resulted in the death of two persons, while several others are missing and could not be accounted for.

The deceased, it was learnt, are in their early 20s before the mayhem in the area resulted in their untimely demise.

Speaking  with journalists in Yenagoa, Acting Paramount Ruler of Ondewari Community, Erefawari Peresuo, decried the act of aiding and abeting those involved in oil theft, illegal bunkerers, as well as protection given to rival gangs in the area for pecuniary gains.

Peresuo averred that the compromise elongated the crisis that could have been contained; and sadly it had claimed two lives, while others are missing for days in the mangrove creeks.

The traditional ruler called on the state and Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, avert further loss of lives and ensure the community was not decimated.

Peresuo explained that exclusion of a group from oil pipeline surveillance job in the area, as well as unpaid arrears was responsible for the chaos, just as another group involved in the act of vandalism of pipelines were conniving with some unscrupulous soldiers who had continued to give protection because of the lucrative proceeds of illegal oil deals in the area.

The height of insecurity in the area left some of the youths in the trouble community with no choice than to migrate to neighbouring communities for safety, just as the Paramount Ruler posited that many were nursing injuries sustained from the crisis.

Also,  a member of the Environmental Right Activists/Friends of the Earth (ERAFoen), Comrade Morris Alagoa, who hails from Ondewari community, though condemned the activities of the rival gangs, infighting and the compromise by security agencies, called on deployed soldiers in the community to adopt conflict resolution mechanism in other not to worsen the situation in the area.

He noted that if concerned organs of government at the centre were prompt in paying allowances to those assigned pipeline surveillance job, the community would not have been thrown into a state of anarchy, while the activities of pipeline vandals would have been contained.

He noted that the idea of deploying soldiers to militarise communities to make up for none payment of allowances would not resolve issues, rather it would elicit open confrontation between armed youths and security operatives that would lead to loss of lives.

Said he “guns, and ammunitions are not the solution, rather they have produced the worse, as many persons, children, youths and pregnant women are all missing, they were left with no option than to seek refuge in the mangrove swamp for fear of being killed.

Alagoa noted that the prevailing situation in the community, where a lot of young promising youths are missing calls for concern and the need for the state government and the federal government to wade in to avoid another genocide, just as the case of the regrettable Odi massacre in 1999.

Although the Joint Task Force (JTF) in the Niger Delta, Operation Delta Safe, denied  the involvement saying that soldiers were not involved in the killing of the youth, sources. In the area said that youths in the community had been clashing with soldiers over pipeline surveillance contract.