Let me first express my fraternal greetings to our great sons and daughters. I am delighted to, on behalf of Ebira Peoples Association (EPA) give an extract on the organization’s attempt at mediating and resolving some of the debilitating security issues in our land.
These efforts have been all involving and not limited to the executives of the body as we are just a collegiate of the various tendencies of our people. The struggle to salvage a land should not be limited to the selfish and pretender claims of who does what but must at all times ventilate the philosophy of “collectivism is the strength of a community.”
This is very much in line with the Ebira age-long saying that the concern of a passer-by regarding a commotion occasioned in a community by an invading snake is about whether the snake has been killed and not who killed or what was used to kill the snake. The ease of killing the proverbial snake can only be a quotient of the amalgamated focus and strength of its hunters. This can never be achieved by atomizing into individualism and little groups which invariably betrays the weakness inherent in snakes as they refuse to flock together. Shared responsibility in the form of pulling resources together is the winning game in the contemporary world.
Permit me to say a healthy debate can only resonate the intellectual under-current of our inner minds and the alloy of our harmonized perspectives can only turn out finer grains of the issues of our land, at least within the realm of our online platform. EPA therefore welcomes all criticisms about our land as they serve as a barometer of our performance. However, I ask every child of our land to contribute financially or otherwise to the growth of this umbrella body while we concurrently ask for accountability on the part of its executives. This is the only way we can reduce the moral burden on our conscience when we criticize the same body.
I would very much like to retire this discourse to the issue of security which is the most paramount in the life of a man, as the saying goes that ‘even in the midst of plenty, the quantum of consumption is linearly related to the quantum of crisis in and around you.’
Fellow compatriots, I am proud to say that EPA has ceaselessly engaged our community and various security agencies on series of dialogue. Let me hasten to say and put it on record that EPA has its solid fingerprint in the current peace which we all enjoy at home today. On the assumption of office of the current executives, EPA initiated a meeting of all district traditional rulers and ward heads of our community. At the meeting, fingers were variously pointed at the then Area commander of Kogi Central as the problem of our land, as he was said to be renting guns from the police armuory to our politicians’ miscreants to perpetuate mayhem in our land.
We initiated a strong meeting with the then commissioner of police where we demanded that he be transferred from our land. It was the refusal of the command to recommend such that made us write a letter to the Inspector General of Police and National Security Adviser. The National Security Council ordered the IG to transfer him. Our appreciation goes to the then Director of Armed forces intelligence, Major General S.Y. Audu who assisted much in this regard.
We followed up with a meeting with the Commissioner of Police Alhaji Muhammed Katsina. We gave him a letter for onward transmission to the IG, demanding the construction of police post in all the dark spots where our “bad boys” take hibernation, e.g Ajaokuta road, Ageva, Ege, Usungwe etc. and indeed creation of more Police divisions in Okene. A single Police division is considered inadequate to take care of our burgeoning population and expansion.
The letter went up to the police service commission where budgetary constraint has been cited as their main hindrance. Reminders and follow-ups are still been done till date. The president of EPA personally met the then IG on this. In order to foster a good Community/Security agents relationship, the then Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Katsina and DSS directed all the DPOs and Heads of SSS in the District to hold a meeting of security agents in the Land with Ebira Leaders at the Hilltop hotel Okene. The meeting came up with frank and rewarding suggestions at addressing some of our security challenges.
Part of the resolution was to design forms to be filled by any prospective tenant(s), signed by the landlord, attested to by the Ward Head and endorsed by the Police in the area. The form is to carry relevant security information about the tenant. It was purely about knowing your neighbor.
Three things necessitated this meeting. They are:
1. The discovery of explosives in a house rented out to a tenant in Obangede.
2. As a reaction to the interview by the former GOC 1st mechanized division on the volatile security situation in the north wherein he mentioned Okene as second to Kano in the order of security volatility in the north.
3. The privileged information from the Intelligence passed on to me as President of EPA on the worry by the President of the Federal Government about Okene becoming a point from which an attack could be launched on the FCT, based on reports that Okene had become a transit point for arms from the South destined for Federal Capital Territory.
It was three days after the meeting above that there was an attack on the Deeper Life and murder of soldiers. EPA swiftly addressed a press conference and had one-on-one meetings with the Commander, Military Barrack in Lokoja; GOC 1st mechanized division in Kaduna, Director of Defense intelligence and the Chief of Army Staff. The high level personae that attended the meetings are still on ground. The meeting was to douse the impending holocaust on our land and calm the frayed nerves of the security personnel.
In addition to this meeting was a high level security meeting facilitated by our distinguished Senator, Nurudeen Abatemi and our other elected representatives in Inike town hall, Okene. This meeting was also followed up with another one with the Governor as facilitated by the same senator. The meetings came up with a lot of resolutions. EPA followed up all these meetings with a letter to the President, Chief of Army Staff and National Security Adviser, demanding for a Military Barrack in Ebiraland.
Three major reasons were cited for this request. They are:
1. To arrest the spate of violence prevailing in the area.
2. The fact that we are bounded by six communities where the borders are very porous, thereby permitting cross-border banditry.
3. Our peculiar location that makes it a commercial melting point and transportation hub between the south and north.
We have ceaselessly followed this request with series of letters to the Chief of Army Staff. Indeed, I had a call from one Brigadier General Butu of the Army headquarters drawing attention that our letter was received. Two major challenges they have in attending to our request include:
1. The fact that the Barrack in Lokoja was initially in Okene until a protest was launched for it to be moved after the civil war.
2. The fact that the Barrack in Otokiti Village, Lokoja is still in Ebiraland, making it difficult to have a second one in the same location.
We have not lost hope as I still reiterated the request to the present Commander of the Barrack in Lokoja, General Abubakar. He disclosed to me that the Army council has, in fact, approved a new Barrack for Kogi but unsure of its location. We have since followed up with another reminder to the COAS.
Some other efforts of EPA at securing peace for our Land include:
1. Recovery of cache of arms from our cemeteries which the military actively partner with us to undertake.
2. Sometimes back, there were reports made to EPA on some unholy activities of some miscreants in some quarters of our land. Two notorious places are noteworthy for these same activities, but would not be disclosed at the moment. Relevant steps are being taken by the security agents in partnership with EPA.
3. It was a measure of confidence of the security authorities on EPA to refer the crisis within the Igbo community in Ebiraland which has the propensity to dovetail onto our land to EPA for adjudication, despite the fact that the Area Commander, Commissioner of Police were already joined in a suit on the issue in a law court. Much effort is being made at resolving it as EPA has consulted with the Ohinoyi of Ebiraland and the Supreme Elder’s council in a move towards resolving the issue.
4. EPA decided to institutionalize a Supreme Elders’ Council for our land with a view to nipping in the bud all and every local issues besetting the land. This body has just gotten a new Chairman in the person of Alhaji Sule Aliu (Alias Sule Engineer) who has taken over from Adai Senator Isa Abonyi Obaro. This body is currently mediating on a lot of the issues of the land, such as Ohinoyi/Ohi crisis, Ebira/Ogori land dispute, and Ebira/Edo land dispute.
[myad]
