….Allegations baseless -Chief Priest
Enogie His Royal Highness Usuanlele Iyengumwena and elders of Uma Village in Uhunmwode Local Government Area of Edo State, have accused the people and elders of the neighbouring Ekiugbo Village in the same locality of unleashing criminal attacks to wit; attempted murder, kidnapping and violence on their
subjects particularly the youths, arising from pending boundary disputes in the court.
They appealed to Governor Godwin Obaseki, the Inspector-General of Police and the Commissioner of Police to come to their rescue.
In the petitions authored by the Enogie on behalf of the elders and people of Uma village, dated 21st August 2024, he accused the Chief Priest Ohen Okhuomaruyi, Osamede Eriyo, the youth leader; Ebo, the CSO; Robinson Edobor; Joshua, the beacon chairman and Elvis Ewemade, of variously aided the imminent attack and alleged shooting of one Abolo, a local vigilante on December 26 2023 by one Emmanuel Doma and Osaigbovo Usuanlele on July 30 ( last month) while he was on his way to Benin City through the Ekiugbo access road by Ebo, CSO; on the alleged order of the youth leader.
HRH Iyengumwena added that he caused a petition to be written to the office of the AIG zone 5 headquarters, Benin City and there was no prompt response immediately and that the police at Egba Police Divisional headquarters came on the second shooting and rushed the said victim, Osaigbovo Usuanlele to an undisclosed clinic where he received urgent medical attention over the injury sustained, stressing that the first victim, Abolo was treated with the money paid by Osamede Eriyo, as part of his effort to resolve the issues.
The traditional head maintained that as the police at AIG zone 5 headquarters Benin City, could not do the needful to salvage their plight, hence these petitions to enable the authorities concerned to intervene as they are now living in palpable fear of further imminent attack.
But reacting, Robinson Edobor, who is one of Ekiugbo village elder, while speaking on behalf of the Ohen Okhuomaruyi, Osamede Eriyo, the youth leader and the elders, described the allegations as not only futile, spurious and lacked substance, but calculated attempts to smear their reputation and paint it black before the public in order to get empathy and cheap popularity where there is none.
To set the record straight, Edobor said that the land which forms the boundary disputes had been a subject of litigation which was pending in a court of competent jurisdiction, insisting that it was the people of Uma village that had ceaselessly encroached and trespassed their lands and sold them to the unsuspecting members of the public without recourse to the court proceedings in the matter.
He noted that the youths of Uma village were those who had engaged in abrupt shooting of Ekiugbo people to the extent that they ( Ekiugbo people) wrote a petition to the office of the Commissioner of Police, Edo State, for intervention.
The elder stated further that those involved were arrested in the order of the CP and were adequately charged to court and remanded until they were granted bail.
Edobor explained that up till that moment, the people of Uma village have sold large expanse of their lands, a development which forced their village chief Priest to appeal for peaceful settlement but to no avail hence they (Ekiugbo elder) wrote a petition to the office of the Inspector General if Police, who had called for their arrest and that as at the moment, the police are looking for them to arrest.
He however, urged the public not to take them seriously as they are economical with the facts on ground, just as he has appealed to the relevant authorities to caution the people of Uma village before it results in a communal crisis which the law will not close its eyes on.
