Mkpoikana Udoma 17 September 2014, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt – Increased communal clashes and insecurity have ben reported in some communities in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State over a piece of land endowed with mineral resources.
President General of Nyo-Khana Youth Association, Mr Barikpoa Serekara, told SweetCrudeReports in Port Harcourt that the crises were mainly as a result of the land dispute between communities over control of crude oil allegedly located on the land.
He said, so far more than 10 people have died as a result of the communal crises over they piece of land, in the last 5 months.
Serekara called on the Rivers State Government and various to intervene in the crises among the people of Sogho and Kpo communities in Khana Local Government Area in Ogoniland.
“I want to use this opportunity to call on the Rivers State government with the matter of urgency to intervene between the communities called Sogho and Kpo in Khana Local government, because for some time now there have been a lot of crisis there because of land dispute, and these communities have lost a lot of souls that could have been prominent leaders bytomorrow.
“Our government should not fold hands and allow these two communities to perish away. Let the government see what they can do to bring peace in these communities because these 2 communities are also part and parcel of the state where Rivers State government is purely in charge,” he said.
Efforts for SweetCrudeReports to reach the traditional rulers of the 2 communities were unsuccessful; however indigenes from both communities have cordoned the embattled piece of land with charms and amulets to pin down access into the land.
It should be recalled that crude oil exploration and production in Ogoniland have long been bunged over the federal government’s failure to implement the environmental cleanup reports by UNEP in Ogoniland, however, the Minister of Petroleum Resources Mrs. Deziani Allison Madueke has disclosed that the federal government has began consultations with stakeholders in Ogoni, in a bid to begin the implementation of the UNEP reports on Ogoniland.