While the Delta state government is battling to quell the communal crisis that has bedevilled Ibabu and Iselegu Communities in Ndokwa West and Ndokwa East Local Government Areas of the state, the member representing Ndokwa/Ukwuani in the House of Representatives, Hon. Ossai Nicholas Ossai has said the Delta State government is working to ensure that there is a peaceful co-existence between the warring Communities.
Speaking at a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Leaders and stakeholders meeting at Kwale, Ndokwa West local government area of Delta State, Hon. Ossai said the member representing Nokwa West constituency in the Delta State House of Assembly and his counterpart in Ndokwa East, Hon. Azuka Azaka and Hon. Friday Osanebi respectively have already raised the issue under matters of urgent public importance and government has waded into the issue.
Hon. Ossai assured the people that the Iselegu/Ibabu crisis is not beyond the Delta State government and as such, “it cannot be presented before the Federal Government for now.”
Hon. Azuka who raised a motion for the Delta State government to intervene on the floors of the state legislature urged the people to be patient, stating, “it is affecting all of us and I go to my village through a bush part, it is an annual crisis which is being addressed and I urge all of us not to discuss the issue here.”
The Commissioner for Energy, Hon. Charles Emetulu who was at the meeting, said government has waded into the issue to proffer lasting solution and urged the people to be patient as it was a security issue.
At the meeting, it was resolved that there will be no imposition of candidates in the forth-coming local government elections in Delta State.
It could be recalled that members of Delta State House of Assembly, recently passed a resolution, calling on Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan to set up a high-powered panel of inquiry to investigate and find solutions to the perennial crisis between Iselegu and Ibabu communities of the state.
This followed a motion by the member representing Ndokwa West constituency, Mr. Azuka Azaka, who said the crisis had worsened, citing a case of the killing of a Delta State University lecturer, who was caught in a crossfire at Iselegu Junction.
The motion, supported by his counterpart representing Ndokwa East constituency, Mr. Friday Osanebi, and unanimously passed, reads: “This House call on Governor Uduaghan to direct security operatives to curtail the perennial inter-communal crisis between Iselegu community and Ibabu community in Ndokwa West and Ndokwa East local government areas, respectively.”
