Olafemi and the Orgaminana Massacre

Authored by: Dr. Adinoyi Ojo Onukaba, Abuja Nigeria. http://odili.net/news/source/2008/mar/30/20.html

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, New York USA.

AS expected, there have been lots of finger-pointing and denials between the people of Ogaminana in Kogi State and the Nigeria Police since last month when a senseless orgy of killings and burning left over 50 people dead, hundreds injured, 5,000 rendered homeless and more than 20 vehicles, 65 houses and 150 stores burnt. The true sequence of events and the roles played by each group in the horrific killings of defenseless people in Ogaminana remain contentious. But here is what has been established so far:

On February 22, this year, six trucks loaded with iron ore concentrates were on their way to Port Harcourt from Itakpe Iron Ore Mining Company in Kogi State when youths from nearby Ogaminana intercepted and detained them. The youths, who were peacefully protesting against the systematic looting of the Itakpe iron ore deposits by Global Infrastructures Limited, the Indian firm to which it was concessioned in controversial circumstances by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, were said to have deflated the tyres and smashed the windscreens of the trucks.

Two days later, on February 24, a unit of the Police Mobile Force was dispatched to Ogaminana "to prevent further damage to the (detained) vehicles and products", according to Kogi State Police Commissioner Ibe Aghanya. It was in the process of carrying out this assignment that the police clashed with the protesting youths, leaving an Inspector, a Sergeant and a Corporal seriously wounded and Corporal Raphael George abducted. A search and rescue police team sent on February 26, according to police official report, found Corporal George's mutilated body along Kabba Road after another bloody clash that the police said claimed the lives of two of the intrepid youths.

Police Commissioner Aghanya cleverly left out in his report the fact that after retrieving the body of their fallen colleague the police descended on Ogaminana at 8.30 pm on February 26, killing and brutalizing mostly elderly men, women and children in a reprisal attack that has sent shock and outrage throughout the country. Aghanya also did not admit that it was the summary execution of one Haruna Sule - shot several times by the police - that provoked the youths into attacking his men.

Of course, Aghanya's selective account of the mayhem his men visited on Ogaminana is designed to demonize the community and to make the police look innocent. Already, the gullible Clarence Olafemi, the acting governor of Kogi State, is so convinced of the collective guilt of the Ogaminana people that he has been raining curses on them for the death of Corporal George.

Olafemi did not care to conduct an independent investigation into the killings before rushing to condemn the entire people of Ogaminana and the Kogi Central Senatorial District for their penchant for violence and other anti-social behaviour. He has not even cared to visit the community to see things for himself before apportioning blame. It will be surprising if Olafemi knows where to locate Ogaminana on the map of the state he claims to be governing.

This is the real tragedy of the April 2007 elections. The charade threw up all sorts of characters at the helm of our affairs, including those ill-equipped to run a hunters guild that have suddenly found themselves in charge of complex entities like states.

This Day correspondent Wole Ayodele has provided a graphic detail of the atrocities committed by the police in Ogaminana on February 26 which the acting governor, the chief security officer in the state, claimed not to know. In the March 10 edition of the newspaper, Ayodele wrote that the police "unleashed a reign of terror of an unimaginable proportion on the hapless and innocent residents of the community, killing, maiming and engaging in wanton destruction destruction of property...."

In a manner reminiscent of Odi (in Bayelsa State) and Zaki Biam (in Benue State) reprisal attacks by the army following the killing of their colleagues by the two communities during the Obasanjo administration, it was reported in the newspapers that the police ran amok killing anybody in sight including women, elderly men and children. They did not spare even domestic animals. Gated houses had their fences pulled down before being broken into. Petrol station attendants were ordered at gun point to fill up containers that were later used to douse houses and shops before being set on fire. Vehicles passing through the area, the report added, were stopped and passengers were ordered to disembark "and any Ebira man or woman found in the vehicles was allegedly shot instantaneously".

Who authorized the attack? Did the leadership of the Kogi State Police Command inform Olafemi about the plan to wipe Ogaminana out of the state? How much did Olafemi know and when did he know it? How come that Olafemi and Police Commissioner Aghanya are only concerned about the death of Corporal George? What about the 50 or so innocent souls killed by the police? Is each of those killed by the police less important than the one killed by the youths of Ogaminana? Has Olafemi ever queried Aghanya about the killings - assuming he did not know about the attack? Is it possible for the police to embark on such a murderous raid without the permission of the chief security of the state?

At a memorial ceremony for Corporal George in Lokoja recently, Olafemi spoke like a man who has just finished a drum of pito (a local drink made of fermented guinea corn). "May they never see favour in their lives again", he said of the killers of Corporal George while announcing some monetary compensation to his survivors. He went on to describe the killing of the police man as satanic and that "the incident has to be condemned in its entirety". What about the 50 victims of police killings in Ogaminana? Olafemi made no mention of them beyond categorically ruling out payment of any compensation to them. Barely hiding his disdain or contempt for the people of the Central Senatorial Zone, Olafemi said "nobody had briefed him about the magnitude of the damage". Yet, he was quick to blame the traditional ruler of the area for the crisis.

The Ogaminana massacre has already been raised on the floor of the Kogi State House of Assembly by Hon. Momoh Jimoh Anda and it was unanimously condemned by members. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have set up separate investigative committees to look into the killings - thanks to the efforts of Senator Salihu Ohize and Hon. Abdulkareem Salihu. Yet, acting governor Olafemi said he had not been briefed about its magnitude. Is he running Kogi from outer space? With such an incompetent and highly partisan fellow running the government - not matter how briefly - any wonder therefore that Kogi is in such a mess. Again, the state government has failed the people from which it derives mandate. The callous disregard for the plight of the people of the area by both Olafemi and the previous government of Idris Ibrahim continue to confirm lingering suspicions that the state government prefers to treat the area as a lawless fiefdom because it is the base of opposition Action Congress (AC).

This is one massacre that cannot be swept under the carpet. Without prejudice to the outcome of the investigations by the National Assembly, the families of those killed as well as those who lost their houses, vehicles and shops must sue the Nigeria Police to court and demand compensations. The Nigeria police will have to pay for this. It cannot be swept away like Odi and Zaki Biam. People must be held accountable, including the youths who killed Corporal George. Aghanya should be sent on compulsory leave pending the completion of the various probes. We will never have a country we can all be proud of if our supposed protectors kill us with such impunity.

The Nigerian police force has long been notorious for abusing the very people it is supposed to protect. Its style of operation, crime fighting approach and general orientation are outdated, crude, immoral and anti-people. The force behaves with absolute disdain for the rights and dignity of the people whose taxes sustain it. Members of Hitler's murderous special squad would appear far more civilized and humane than some of the men and women in our police force. The question being asked by reasonable Nigerians was why the police did not fish out the killers of Corporal George instead of waging a senseless war against a whole community. Was Corporal George killed by the entire Ogaminana community? Why visit the sins of a few youths on a community? Can the loss of 50 lives in Ogaminana bring back Corporal George?

A Onukaba, a journalist and playwright, lives in Abuja.

Ebiraland: What our Problem is

Authored by: Dr. Zakaree Saheed S, Lecturer
Borobudur University, Jakarta
South East Asia

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, New York, USA.

Foremost, I must thank you for creating this medium where Ebirans home and abroad can easily expresses their views. Moreso giving those of us in Diaspora the insight of what is happening back home. I have read people’s opinion on problems facing our land, especially on the recent catastrophe that befell our land, Ogaminana to be specific. One of the write-ups entitled, “Crisis in Ebira land beyond politics, but spiritual” was particularly of interest. The writer was of the opinion that “the Ebirans have no leader, whether bad or good!”
Is it true that Ebirans do not have a leader? If in the context of his write-up, leadership does not mean anything different, could the writer be right that there is no single person that delivers true value, integrity, and thrust transformational leadership? Could he be right that there is no single person that articulates an ideological vision congruent with the deeply-held value of fellow Ebirans, a vision that describes a better future to which all Ebirans have an alleged moral right? Could he be right that no single person displays a passion for, and has a strong conviction of what they regard as moral correctness of our vision, engages in outstanding or extraordinary behavior and makes extraordinary self-sacrifices in the interest of the vision and mission of Ebira land? Could he be right that no single person can set the stage for effective role-modeling because Ebira youths identify with the values of role models whom they perceive in positive terms? Could he be right that no single person has or can ever persuade fellow Ebirans to accept and implement change, engage in alignment, with interpretive orientations such that some Ebira interests, values and belief as well as that person’s activities, goals and ideology becomes congruent and complementary?
Well, having stayed out of the country for quite a long time, I may not be in a position to confirm or counter that view. Rather it will be safer to assume the writer may be right in his opinion, so long he did not mean that Ebirans do not have elders. We may not have a leader according to him, but we have got elders, at least.
Ebira land has elders who have been opportuned to take the name of the land to national level, and have done our land the honour of being identified with the name. At least, it is on record that Ebira land has once produced the Chief of Army staff, the Inspector General of Nigerian Police, and State governors among others. Is that not enough an honour? Even though they might not have been able to bring about any meaningful changes to our land, they could not be blamed much, since they were made to sit with half buttock while in office. Hence they are always gene in whichever office you find them. However, they deserve to be commended. Atleast the Ebirans have come to be identified with undiluted loyalty to their bosses. Our elders in public offices are known for being obedient servants, who however could not or failed to draw a line between loyalty and responsibility. They are only vertically oriented and never horizontally.
Even then, I still do not absolutely believe that the problem of Ebira land is that of leadership. Someone may then ask, “What then is our problem?”
The problem of Ebiraland is our unwillingness or reluctance to transform into a modern society. Our reluctance to part with our odd and outdated ways for a civilize society. The so-called Isohiku and the spirit surrounding it has really affected our ability to see the need for transformation of our society. The unruly and uncivilized behaviour that surround the performance of this aspect of our culture has transformed from annual headache into a daily lifestyle. Even the graduates and students, who are supposed to be a symbol of civilization and tools for reformation, are not better of, when it come to the so-called rituals.
“No one makes you feel inferior without your consent”. We have consciously or unconsciously given the impression that what matters most to Ebirans is their annual Masquerade, give it to them and they will let go any other thing, including political offices and resources control”. It deprives our youth the good reasoning capability. We fight without any objective, without any goal other than hurt our fellow brothers. We sacrifice life unnecessarily, achieving nothing other than to attract more massive retaliation and humiliation like what has happened in Ogaminana.
From being a single entity, we have allowed ourselves to be divided by the so-called clannish supremacy mentality. On their part, some of the so-called elders sacrifices the tomorrow of our youths for their own gain. They share weapons to our youths to destroy their fellow brothers. It is only when we become conscious of our loses, our only reaction is to become more and more angry. Angry people cannot think properly. And so we find some of our people reacting irrationally. They launch their attacks against wrong target to vent anger. Of course, the authority retaliates and pressurizes our elder, and they have no choice but to give in.
The writer said that our problem is not political but spiritual. He may be right or wrong. Are our weakness, backwardness and inability to positively develop our potentials spiritual problems?
Has God not said in the holy book that “He will not change the fate of a community until the community has tried to change its fate itself”. In that case, then which is the way forward? It is an undisputable fact that the world is moving fast with or without you. It is either you be part of a dynamic world or be left behind. According to Charles Darwin, “It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to changes”.
Who takes the challenge to bring about the reformation that is needed in Ebiraland?
According to Niccolo Machiavelli, “There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than to initiate a new order of things. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old system and mercy lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new ones.” Of course, the only person who likes change is a wet baby.
It might not be an easy task to change people’s attitude or behaviour, but it will be manageable to manipulate what influences their attitude, that is, the value they acknowledge.
VALUE BEHAVIOUR NORMS CULTURE

Value, especially moral value, or from philosophical view, values of life, encloses an element of judgment in the sense that it embraces individual’s view on what is right, good or desirable. The value may be clan supremacy, class, peace, democracy, material or whatever.
In every culture, value has certainly been developed over a long period of time, only time make it stronger as it passes from generation to generation. However most of the value people acknowledge today, arise from the parent, teacher, friends or other sources. Most of our perceptions today concerning what is right and wrong has been formulated from the views established by the elders.
Whatever value we acknowledge to be right from our own perception has a direct influence on how we behave, and our behaviour becomes our norms, and the norms become a culture. So any attempt to change our people’s behaviour has to be directed towards re-establishing the values that the people acknowledge.
In so doing, charity begins at home. Every family or a household in Ebiraland is an integral part of a society that makes up the community and many communities make up the town. These towns constitute the whole of Ebira land. A French philosopher once said, “You either influence your environment, or your environment influences you”. If we, especially the elites, can impact positive influences on our various families, our society will be positively influenced, and then our communities, towns, and of course the whole of Ebira land will be positively influenced too.
Most importantly, let us once again go back to round table. Call a conference and let all our elites come to the round table where we can collectively identify what are the problems of Ebira land. If we can successfully identify and define our problems, then we can easily establish our vision and mission. Our vision and mission shall guide us in all other aspects, including politics.
Such a round table talk is not to determine the leaders. Rather it is to re-establish a vision for Ebiraland. Where we are at present and where we would want to be in the near future.
It is time we embrace what unites as against what divides us. We can together develop our land, for, “No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable”- Adam Smith.


Dr. Zakaree Saheed S. is a Lecturer @
Borobudur Uiversity, Jakarta
South East Asia

Leaders to begins Disarmament in Ebiraland

Written by: Idris Ahmed and Turaki A Hassan

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, New York USA.


Leaders in Ebiraland in the Kogi State Central Senatorial zone have begun the process of disarmament of warring youths in the region.

The disarmament is expected to be the beginning of a peace process to quell the violence that has ravaged the zone for weeks.

This is part of decisions taken at a reconciliatory meeting convened by the President of the Nigerian Customary Court of Appeal, Justice Moses Bello, to find a lasting solution to the crises in the region.

Addressing stakeholders in the region, Justice Moses said previous meetings were held to soften the ground for a peace parley: "I have no doubt in my mind that peace will come to stay.

We are now out for real peace.

"I was at home during the weekend to meet people, even the so called Generals, the stakeholders who are fighting on the field have been invited and they have all agreed to embrace peace. I don't look at the youths as thugs, they felt angry about some issues, that is why they came out. They have assured me that whatever decision is arrived at today, they will take it home and will all agree on that."

Justice Bello also reacted to the recent massacre and mayhem visited on the people of Ogaminana by the men of the Nigeria police. He called on the government to urgently come to the rescue of those affected.

Among those at the meeting were Senator Salihu Ohize, representing Kogi Central and Senator Muhammed Ohiare, the Action Congress (AC) gubernatorial candidate in the April 2007 general election.

Senator Ohize told journalists that the current disarmament moves was all embracing and total.

Ending Violence in Ebiraland

Wriiten by: Mr. Adoke, Retired Police Public Relation Officer (PPRO)

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, New York, USA

To get a solution to any problem, one has got to get to its root cause or genesis. Like all races the world over, the Ebira race has its own intractable problems. What, in fact, are these problems? Without missing words, they are mainly political, social and economical. In looking at the first one, one cannot help recalling the reign of the late Atta. Under his reign, Ebiraland was a peaceful, calm and placid. In a dramatic turn of events, towards the end of his reign, some kind of terrible wind of change came sweeping across the North rocking the boat of feudalism.

In the wake of this change came the birth of Igbirra Tribal Union (ITU). The ITU was a revolutionary mass movement formed to challenge the absolute authority of the Late Atta. That was in the early 50s. Even though the Atta enjoyed absolute power, historians are divided on whether the elements who constituted feudalism were exactly in existence in Atta’s land at that time.

It is natural that he who enjoys power never likes such power wrestled from him. The Atta vigorously resisted this. Atta had his staunch and loyal supporters. Though fewer in number than the ITU followership, they were highly enlightened, richer and influential. They formed a counter force known as the Igbirra Progressive Union (IPU).

With the formation of these two political camps, each with its own military wings, Burma Boys for the ITU and Cow Boys for the IPU, the stage was set for a long drawn-out battle. Naturally, one should expect bloody clashes. And there were indeed many such clashes but surprisingly, nobody lost his life apart from bloodied heads and bodies left in their trail.

Unable to cope with the rising tide of opposition, the Atta finally threw in the towel by formally abdicating from the throne after the ITU had gained the upper hand, having been actively supported by the then colonial maters. But his unqualified leadership, legacies and superb stewardship cannot be easily forgotten. His successor was a political one. Whether this was right or wrong is better left for the generous or ruthless verdict of history.

Most historians and political analysts agree that the leadership of the adventurous ITU predicated their revolution on a tissue of lies such as the bandying about that the Atta was a dictator, that he blocked the education of the children of the poor and also that he exploited the poor masses for the education of his children outside Ebiraland and overseas. If these were so, how, where and when did the few enlightened leaders of the ITU get their education from?

Unfortunately, what the ITU revolution left behind was a legacy of the neutralization of the flow of genuine and absolute respect for the elders from the younger ones. Where such respect ceasesto exist, an otherwise decent society will crumble like a pack of cards.

This is the situation with us today. This has led to a rapid decay of our society. The established political camps are still very much with us today with a yawning gap of opposition between the two and with little or no difference in their shape, colour and philosophy. For easy understanding, the ITU appeared to be wearing the toga of the progressives and the IPU that of the reactionaries.

In the course of the ITU pursuing its revolution and the IPU its counter revolution, both of them often used all kinds of social and cultural festivals to sponsor singers of their respective parties to fire salvos of abusive and provocative songs that in most cases often triggered off bloody clashes. This trend has continued till date and being actively supported and fuelled by sinister and unregistered social clubs.

Before the advent of the colonialists, what the Ebiras have were clannish leaders, each feeling very superior to the other. This is not good for an organized society if it has to be effectively governed. What the colonialists did was to establish the Atta dynasty. The ITU revolution destroyed all this, thus leaving a festering sore of chieftaincy problem. This problem has not been effectively solved as the recent arrangement of rotational chieftaincy among the component districts of Ebiraland had merely scratched the surface.

In my own considered opinion, a genuine and well conceived revolution should have given birth to a good and sound social and economic agenda for the general promotion of peace and the well-being of its people. This the ITU did not do. Failure of this has left our society a politically divided one, a malaise from which we are yet to recover. For what does it pay to replace an old order with one that is no better?

Today Ebiras are politically at war with each other. Internecine political clashes are occurring daily with sophisticated weapons being used in prosecuting them. With our mean and uneducated politicians supplying them with these deadly weapons, we are now near anarchy situation. If these politicians were educated, they should have used their wealth to give scholarships to the children of the poor to ensure a better future for them.

It is a pity that in Ebiraland, those who live below subsistence allowance like getting married to as many wives as possible. This set of people cannot afford to educate the children given to them by God. As they grow up, such children become wayward and soon become easy tools in the hands of mindless politicians.

This sordid can be arrested if we have the political will. As parents we must rediscover ourselves and begin to inculcate in our children the values of morality and respect for the elders. Once this foundation of fear is in our children, the temptation to commit crimes against each other and humanity generally will forever be kept at bay. Teachers, too, have a great role to play in this respect to achieve a wholesome result.

To keep irate youths and their sponsors in check and silence them forever, it is suggested that a military station be permanently established somewhere in the outskirts of Okene.

Poverty is a serious social malaise. It lures young unemployed people to commit grave crimes. This social problem is on the increase. It has contributed in no small measure in the destruction of our society today. A good government that is worth its salt should as an article of faith, effectively and immediately tackle this problem.

A soldier without a gun cannot bully or instill any fear in a fellow human being. Similarly, a thug or a hoodlum cannot do the same without a gun. The sophisticated guns in Ebiraland are too many. These have been made available to hoodlums by the politicians. If government is serious, these guns can be recovered through the arrest of the supplier-politicians and the hoodlums and anarchists coupled with a thorough house to house search by a joint team of the police and the army.

Provided we have the strong will and we, as a people, have a willingness to cooperate with constituted authorities, heads of which are not pro-growth and multiplication of thugs, hoodlums and anarchists, absolute peace will return to Ebiraland like in the late Atta era.

Adoke is a journalist and a retired Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO).

In Search of Peace in Ebiraland

Written by: Olufemi Yahaya

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, New York, USA.


Like people groping in darkness for light, the Ebira people in Kogi State are now more than before determined and desperately seeking for peace to end the orgy of violence in their area. Not minding the cost, the stakeholders in Ebiraland have again stretched hands of fellowship for dialogue over what they say has brought shame to them with the incessant killings and destruction of property.

Although the search for peace appears Herculean, the setting last Tuesday under a very harmonious and conducive environment far away from the tension at home could be the beginning of a new era in the Ebiraland. As rightly encompassed by the host of the peace parley, Justice Moses Bello, who is President of the Customary Court of Appeal in Abuja, the devastating effect of the senseless communal, political and masquerade crisis ravaging the Ebira in the Central Senatorial District of Kogi State is of great concern to every reasonable Ebiraman.

According to him, within the last six years alone, the crisis had led to the wanton destruction of valuables, human lives and unprecedented razing down of buildings and other property. The recent carnage wrecked upon the people by men of the mobile police force where hundreds of houses and billion naira worth of goods and many lives were destroyed have further propelled the people to move for peace.
Justice Bello lamented that the crisis, which he said continues to go from one district to the other in the area, has given rise to arms build-up in the entire Ebiraland and the youths who are active players are making it dangerously impossible to effectively check mate them. According to the legal luminary, apart from the great set back it has caused to the socio-economic and political development of Ebiraland, the crisis have become a source of worry to non-Ebira as well who use the highway that pass through Ebiraland, thus creating bad image for his people.
Speaking on the recent alleged police role in the burning of houses, Bello said the crisis has assumed a new and more disturbing dimension in view of what happened. Sadly, the security agents, who are supposed to help keep peace and ensure the security of life and property, were alleged to have become participants in the destruction of lives and property.

“The recent mayhem in Ogaminana, till this moment, the police authorities have not shown any remorse. Similarly, the state and local governments have not made any tangible moves in sympathy with the innocent victims of the police mayhem,” he said.
Bello, who hosted hundreds of his kinsmen to an all-day peace talks, noted that it was on this basis of the sad state of affairs in Ebiraland that he felt the sense of responsibility and humility to convene the peace parley to reconcile all conflicting sector to help chart a way forward. His speech opened up the channel for other speakers to bare their minds on the calamity and to proffer a solution.

It was a moving and consoling gathering as the Ebira power brokers discussed freely under an atmosphere devoid of the hostile and tense environment that becloud their homes back in Kogi. Ebira politicians were taken to task as speaker after speaker pointed accusing fingers at them for the unnecessary power tussle.
Bello also berated the youths for allowing themselves to be used by self-seeking leaders as tools for negative activities that have caused Ebiraland great set back and serious ridicule.

The parley, however, turned out an open market of confession. A member of the House of Representatives, A.K. Salihu, advocated for another round of talks for politicians and community leaders only who had been identified to have engaged the youths. He lamented the Ogaminana police invasion and promised to table the matter at the National Assembly to force the police to account for their deeds
Alhaji Ahmed Adoke, a public affairs commentator and human rights activist, lamented that as a result of the crisis in the past six years, there has been arms build up in Ebiraland to the extent that over 40 per cent of households possess arms and dangerous weapons of war.

Some of these arms he said are more lethal or sophisticated than the ones used by the security agents, thus making it dangerously impossible for the police to effectively check the militant Ebira boys.
Adoke identified political activities, masquerades activities, clannish sentiment and senseless gangsterisim by an army of Ebira unemployed youths as major causes of the trouble in the area. According to him, short-term measures to curb the situation include the government providing immediate/result-yielding professionally determined police operation in Okene and environs to check the activities of the militant youths and an immediate re-orientation programme for the militant youths; urgent need for Ebira traditional institution to put heads together and the indefinite suspension of masquerade festival/activities.

Long term measures, he said, should include disarming the youths, creation of gainful employment opportunities, and a code of conduct for Ebira political leaders. Other measures would be to ban clubs/organisations that promote masquerades; putting in place effective peace committees; and mass transfer of policemen from the area.
A Reverend Father, Anthony Akande, advocated the evolution of community elders forum that would be saddle with the responsibility of maintaining peace and to ensure the youths went back to school.

Another view was the call on the state government to rather than conducting election in the area appoint sole administrators that are not politicians for the five councils in Ebiraland. At the end of the parley, which lasted over six hours, a 16-point resolution on causes and solutions of the crisis were identified.
Among the solutions agreed upon was the call on political leaders in the area to stop the violence, to work together for peace, a standing committee of elders to oversee activities of political class.

Other suggestions were the call on the federal government to make concerted effort retrieve the illegal arms in Ebiraland, review the sale of Ajaokuta steel complex, redeploy the police in the district, continuous enlightenment of the youth and an emergency programme by the state government to salvage the youths in meaningful activities among others. The roll call at the parley included Senators Mohammed Ohiare and Salihu Ohize, A.K. Salihu, Alhaji Nasiru Sodo, Hajia Ladi Ibrahim, Tom Adaba, and Talif Rajai.

Others are Bishop Haruna Wokili, former Grand Khadi, Alhaji Yunus Abdullah, Prof Abdulsalam, and the five Ohis (paramount rulers) in the area.

March 15, 2008 Meeting Minutes - EVI Monthly Meeting

Written by: Dr. Sunday Okomanyi Abraham
EVI General Secretary


Attendees: Dr. Joseph Akomodi, Mr. Abdullahi Bello, and Dr. Sunday Okomanyi Abraham.

Chairman’s Opening Remark
The Chairman thanked everyone for finding the time to attend the meeting.

Dues and Donations – deadline for 2007/2008 is March.
We have been able to collect a sufficient fund for scholarship. The President stated that several acquaintances (non members of EVI) of his have contributed up to $750 USD. Thank you letters are being prepared to be sent to these individuals.

EVI Scholarship for 2008 University Students – Applicants
There are three applicants thus far: two boys and one girl. We’re liaising with the applicants to ensure that all required documents are sent to us.

a) Profiling the current applicants
A contact has been established with someone in Nigeria to interview the applicants via phone. Once the interviews in Nigeria are complete, we will be advised of the results and then, we will proceed to reviewing the applicants’ documents and credentials. This process is a necessity in terms of ensuring that money is provided to well qualify students.

b) Spreading the News about EVI Scholarship.
We are beginning to see that the news about the scholarship is gradually spreading in Ebira land. As a result, we have extended the scholarship deadline to April 30, 2008. We have also asked our contact in Nigeria to approach Ebira students’ associations in Nigeria in an effort to further spread the news about the scholarship.

Violence in Ebira Land
We briefly discussed the situations at home and approaches to resolving the violence. Further discussion is differed until next meeting.

Meeting Adjourned
The Chairman thanked all the participants for the good discussion and adjourned the meeting.