Hundreds of People of Okuama community, Ewu Kingdom, in Ughelli South Local Government Area, Delta State, who fled for their dear lives when troops of the Nigerian Army started trooping into the community over the killing of 16 soldiers last Friday have been stranded for six days without food in the forests.
Some days ago, the Okuama women cried out that they fled into the forests when soldiers allegedly opened fire on the villagers in the town hall after the community refused their attempt to take away the community leaders.
Because of how they escaped into the forests, the women could not take food items with them, and they could not return to the community either, as soldiers had taken over the town.
Vanguard learnt that the neighboring communities to the abandoned Okuama refused to accept the fleeing residents as refugees in their homelands because of the persecution by soldiers, who come around searching for the perpetrators of the heinous crime.
One indigene of a bordering community in the Ewu Kingdom noted, “Hunger is taking a toll on them, especially the children they are carrying. This is a humanitarian crisis, and the government has to open a refugee camp for these people and provide them with food.
“The fact is that neighboring communities of Okuama in the Ewu Kingdom are not receiving fleeing indigenes of Okuama, who are mostly women and children, for fear of harassment and molestation by the military.
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According to local sources, the usually lively community is now a show of its old self; shops are shut down, and many of the natives who fled their homes are still taking refuge in the forest, while some relocated to other communities before the present lockdown in the area.
People cannot come into the community with goods and foodstuffs, and those trapped cannot leave the area.
Access to food and water in the area is diminishing due to the military blockade, another source lamented, noting that the people may be compelled to source water from the polluted river.
Lamenting the plight of the people, an environmentalist, Alagoa Morris, who is also from the Southern Ijaw local government area, urged the authorities to protect the law-abiding people of the community, saying, “With the restriction in Igbomotoru, a situation where nobody is allowed to go about, our people’s traditional means of livelihood – ‘fishing and farming’ the people may die of hunger, if not by a bullet.”
“The federal and state authorities should step in and save the lives of law abiding Nigerians in the community”,He added.
However, some concerned indigenes of Igbomotuoru, who spoke to Vanguard, called on the relevant authorities to prevail on the troops to relax restrictions on free movement in and out of the community to allow the people to pick up the pieces of their lives.
