Fresh facts emerged yesterday on Friday’s
attack on the palace of Ovie of Agbon Kingdom
in Kokori, Ethiope East Local Government Area
of Delta State, HRM Ogurimerime, Ukori1, by
armed youths suspected to be members of
Kelvin Oniarah-led gang.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate
in next Saturday’s Delta Central Senatorial
District Bye-election, Chief Emmanuel
Aguarivwodo, Ukori 1 and the Ovie of
Oruarivie-Abraka, Akpomeyoma Majoroh, Ojeta
II, and at least two members of the House of
Representatives narrowly escaped death in the
attack.
The PDP team was in the monarch’s palace
when armed youths, suspected to be members
of Kelvin Oniarah-led gang in the area, locked
them inside the expansive palace and opened
fire on them.
The Nation gathered that the attack was
targeted at the embattled monarch of the
crime-ridden community, HRM Ogurimerime
Ukori 1, whose whereabouts was unknown at
the time of this report.
No fewer than 20 cars, including two security
Toyota Hilux vans, were either burnt or
smashed by the rampaging armed gang.
The Urhobo community had been embroiled in
crisis since last Wednesday when Oniarah, who
is fingered for numerous high profile kidnap
and other nefarious crimes in and around the
state was arrested in Port Harcourt, Rivers
State.
Our investigation revealed that the target of
the weekend attack was the Kokori monarch
and some PDP stalwarts, fingered for the arrest
of Oniarah.
Rumour had been rife in the kingdom that the
crime lord was setup by the monarch allegedly
under the pretext of arranging a meeting that
would bring peace to his beleaguered kingdom.
Besides, it was gathered that a section Kokori
youths were unhappy that while the
community was embroiled in crisis and people
were suffering from the pang of military
invasion, their monarch was playing host to
members of the PDP.
“The problem in Kokori was caused in the first
place by the PDP, who armed these boys and
used them to rig elections. The monarch too
was installed by the PDP, we all know that,” a
community source stated.
Our source, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said, “We all know that the king
(Ukori 1) is or was a member of the PDP, he
served on the board of Niger Cat under Ibori
(former Governor James Ibori), a PDP
governor.”
Speaking in the same vein, another source, in a
telephone conversation with our reporter, said,
“The (PDP) rally was disrupted by some
aggrieved youths of Kokori. Their grievance
was that rather than using his position to find
lasting solution to the suffering of his people,
he (monarch) was only interested in the
success of his political party.”
Meanwhile, there was uneasy calm in the
community on yesterday in the wake of
Friday’s violence and subsequent takeover of
the community by troops.
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