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Warring Effurun Factions Summoned to Peace Meeting

Vanguard (Lagos)
NEWS
June 18, 2003
Posted to the web June 18, 2003

By Sola Adebayo
Effurun
WARRING factions in Effurun, Delta State were yesterday summoned to a peace
meeting by Delta state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Charles Akaya. Akaya who was
on a familiarisation tour of police formations under his command met the
leaders of the warring factions at Ekpan Police Station in the troubled Uvwie
local government area of Delta State. The warriors, supporters of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) and those of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) converged
on the office of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the station as early as
9.a.m to honour Akaya's invitation.
Akaya had directed his DPO in Ekpan, Mr. Umar Mohammed (SP) to summon them to
the station for possible reconciliation. In the PDP's delegation to the meeting
were the party's chairmanship candidate in the next council polls in the local
government, Mr. Friday Ani, his deputy, Mr. Peters Iffie, Party's Chairman in
Uvwie, Chief Moses Agbofode, Mr. Collins Ighrakpata and the Chairman of the
Effurun branch of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Mr.
Dick Ani.
Others in the PDP team were Mr. Francis Umuroh, Mr. David Ebrusikah, Miss
Stella Otiotio and Mr. Spenser Muruh.
On the side of the AD were Chief Newton Agbofodoh, Chief Godwin Inumah, Chief
Hope Erute, Mr. John Enakireru, Mr. Kingsley Orereh, Mr. Lucky Okoro and Mr.
Collins Likogho.
Akaya who assumed duty as Police Commissioner in Delta Command last month went
into a marathon meeting with the warring politicians at about 2.15pm. The
meeting aimed at brokering peace in the volatile Urhobo community had not ended
as at press time.
Earlier while briefing Akaya on the situation in his division, Mohammed (the
DPO) updated his boss on the volatile nature of the area. He said all the
stakeholders in the crisis had been invited to a dialogue as to how to secure
lasting peace in the area.
The DPO praised his boss for the tremendous support to his division, especially
in the deployment of mobile policemen to complement the efforts of the existing
personnel in the area of crime control and prevention. Mohammed called for the
upward review of the police personnel in the division in order for them to cope
with the exigencies, lamenting that 200 officers and men currently serving in
the division were grossly inadequate. He commended Akaya for the giant strides
recorded within the short period of his leadership of the command.

   

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