By Ikhili Ebalu, Benin City
The Odionwere,elders and the people of Uhie community in Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area of Edo State have appealed to the Edo State government, the Benin Monarch, His Royal Majesty, Oba Ewuare II and other relevant security agencies to come to their aid over alleged attack on them and subsequent killing of a kinsman by the Obaretin community.
The Odionwere,Pa Alfred Imafidon made the appeal while speaking to the press on the recent development bothering on land boundary
He said the height of the illegalities by the people of Obaretin came to fore when they openly attacked , shooting sparodically thereby killing an indigene while others sustained injuries from bullet wounds .
According to the odionwere, the said land in question was acquired by one Chief Agbonavbare ,the Oghobaghase of Benin kingdom,(aka Sereba ) over 30 years now from Uhie community and part of it from the Enogie of Oghobaghase dukedom and he has been farming there without trouble from the neighbouring community.
Continuing,the Odionwere pointed out that after some time the said Chief Agbonavbare ,aka Sereba sold part of the land .
The information about the sales got to us, we invited the said buyer to confirm transaction which was in affirmative.
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He further added that the reason for inviting the buyer was because Uhie community and Chief Agbonavbare,aka Sereba have a memorandum of understanding MOU, to settle on the said land hence we appeal to the buyer to stop work to allow for the resolvement of the issue at stake.
The odionwere further said that to their surprise, on second day, the people of Obaretin brought in pump action guns and Ak 47 riffle shooting sparodically ,ordered the catarpillar to move out of the farm ,using the catarpillar to destroy the farm and the perimeter fence and later forcefully took the tractor to their office, this prompted Chief Agbonavbare to go to AIG office in Benin to put down the report
“The Police invited both parties ,but the people of Obaretin refuse to honour the invite ,while the people of Uhie went there twice ,.
it was however resolved that the man that bought the land should go and start work on the land.
The buyer requested , the presence of some Uhie people as a prove of legitimacy of the land .
Uhie people obliged him with their since they were not envisaging any problem and sat in front of one man’s house called Dr Action .
“The catarpillar then developed fault and it was in our presence the engineers came and said they will not be able to fix the engine that ,it has to be the next day, based on this, the people decided to move out .
Unfortunately, again to their surprise Obaretin people came in with bikes, armed and shooting sparodically and in the process shot one of their indigene by name Odion Edogiawere while other sustained bullet wounds .”
Continuing and collaborating the narration by the Odionwere,an elder from the community Mr Paul Ogieriakhi said instantly,they went to the Police station at Ologbo ,the police came with them to the house of the Odionwere and from there the police went to the scene of the shooting to remove the corpse
“It was even my car that was used to carry the corpse ,the bullets they shot both the Ak 47 and pump action ,I helped the Police to pick and they are with the police at Ologbo as evidence.We want to let the whole world to know that nobody from Uhie community went to Obaretin after the killing ,they only went to the station to inform the police ,what the people of Obaretin are saying that Uhie people came to burn down cars and houses is just a cover up “,he said
“We are appealing to the authorities to come to our aid ,we are law abiding and would not do anything stupid as the matter is already before the law, if we had intended to do that we will not go to the police we will go and retaliate immediately”.