Bua-Boue Crisis: Uegwere Community Lauds Constitution Of Peace Committee, Wants Govt To Monitor Exercise
…As Fleeing Natives Return Home
The Uegwere Community in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State has commended the Rivers State Government, Khana Local Government Council as well as the Mene Bua-Boue, HRH, King Taanlor Nwiidae Tonwe IV for instituting a Peace and Reconciliation Committee, to quell the festering crisis that claimed several lives and properties in the area.
The community in a statement by the Community Development Committee (CDC) Chairman, Nu-Easi M. Adoobe said the Peace and Reconciliation Committee is a step in the right direction but however appealed to Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, leadership of Khana Local Government Area as well as security agencies to ‘painstakingly’ beam their radar on the activities of the committee to ensure equity and justice.
The CDC Chairman said since the objective of the committee is to bring lasting solution to the crisis, it should ensure to penetrate and counter what he described as ‘organized terrorist groups’ in Boue and other parts of Ogoni.
He added that it would be imperative if the state and local governments have their eyes on the activities of the Committee as a check and balance.
Lamenting the colossal human and material casualties suffered by Uegwere Community in the crisis which began in 2007, Adoobe revealed that over twelve vibrant men from the community were gruesomely killed between April 11 and June 18, 2021 by those he alleged were gang leaders from neighboring Kono Boueand their collaborators from Bue Yeghe in Gokana Local Government Area.
“These cultists are community-sponsored. The killing of innocent young and old men from Uegwere by Kono Boue gang leaders led to a growing recognition in Uegwere of a new type of terrorism that did not conform to both cult-related attack and communal attack: violent radical communo-cult related attack, only fashionable among the Jagaban force”, the Chairman declared in the statement he titled, ‘A ray of hope after a nightmare in Uegwere’.
He noted that despite the unprovoked killings, Uegwere Community had according to him, remained resolved to pursue the course of peace for the enlarged Bua Boue Community.
Meanwhile, the CDC Chairman has expressed delight with the return of hundreds of natives who fled the community to different IDP camps in Ogoni land.
He said the development is the success story of series of clarion calls from the CDC and the Mene Bua-Boue for the Uegwere refugees to return home as the constitution of the Peace and Reconciliation Committee has set the tone for peace in the area.
Adoobe also commended the Bori Divisional Officer, SP Bako Angbashim for the recovery of five wheelbarrows and other properties, stolen from some women at their farms in Uegwere Community, and recovered in Yeghe Community on June 21, 2021.
