Land dispute led to killing of soldiers in Delta – community leader

Olorogun Sleek Oshare, a community leader in Delta State, has said that a land dispute resulted in the killing of military personnel in the state.

Oshare stated this during an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today.

On Saturday, 16 military personnel attached to 181 Amphibious Battalion in Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta State were killed while on a peace mission.

The personnel were responding to a communal crisis between the Okuoma and Okoloba communities.

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But during the interview, Oshare said that unnecessary pressure was being put on Okuoma community.

He said, “The quarrel was just a land dispute between one family and another family and land disputes happen over and over again.

“One community felt that the other has a military connection and they were being pressured unnecessarily. The pressure is more on Okuoma and they don’t have anybody to speak for them.

“In the whole narrative you don’t hear the name of the other community. Where is Okoloba? In the last two days Okoloba has disappeared because they are also afraid.

“Sometimes it is made to look as if it were an ethnic thing. It was just a dispute between individuals and Okoloba, which seems to have more connections.

“The families that were involved in the dispute are highly placed. Until we go into the real investigation, the truth will not come out.

“It is then the nation will come out to sympathize with the children, pregnant women and old people who could have lost their lives in the random shootings.”