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Yet to be identified gunmen have invaded Ogoni land, Rivers state killing seven persons in Kporghor village in Tai local government area of the state. The victims, who were killed at about 10pm local time on Wednesday night were Mr. Saturday Akpenee (jnr), Miss Barisa Nkporbu, Mr. Ntormaa Nbete, Mrs. Nneenewa Dimkpa, Mr. TamBari Kpaabe, Mr. Dimkpa Dimkpa and a housemaid to Mr. Friday Dimkpa, whose name was not immediately known. Two other victims seriously injured in the attack were said to be in very critical condition in a hospital in the area.
It was gathered that the victims, who were killed during an invasion by the gunmen were Kporghor natives, taking refuge in Baraobara since December 21, 2014, when their community was allegedly attacked and sacked by armed attackers from neighbouring Okrika communities, particularly Wakama.
Reacting to the murder, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has expressed outrage and condemned the unprovoked invasion and cold blooded killing of innocent Ogoni people. A statement issued today, in Port Harcourt, by Bari-ara Kpalap, the Media/Public Affairs Advisor to the MOSOP President, called on security agencies to investigate the attack and urged that adequate security should be provided for the people and their hosts.
"MOSOP is, therefore, passionately calling on the security agencies, especially the police, to investigate this matter with a view to bringing the perpetrators to book. We would as well entreat the security forces to provide adequate security for the people of Kporghor and their hosts, including other Ogoni communities under threats of similar attack.
"We recall that in December 2014, several citizens of Kporghor village were killed; hundreds of houses and other property razed down and the village sacked, when these Okrika attackers invaded the village.
"The displaced victims of this attack were since then harboured chiefly by the people of Baraobara. This sad incident was reported to the police. Since this unfortunate incident, insecurity in the area increased astronomically. Yet, no tangible step was taken by the security forces to protect the people". MOSOP accused security agencies of lapses which led to the attack, maintaining that they failed to address the matter earlier.
"It is, therefore, our position that the deceased and those maimed are undoubted victims of the state security lapses. For, if the security apparatus had proactively responded to reported threats and upped insecurity in the area, the current losses would have been prevented.
“For a long time, our communities have suffered these deadly, incessant attacks always perpetrated against us by our Okrika neighbours, who seem to have marked Ogoni for punitive, communal resolve. We have had violence and death inflicted on our people, our communities destroyed and our natives forced into internal refugees and our land violently grabbed by these same people.
"It is shameful and disappointing that, whilst other neighbouring communities are strengthening relationships; developing and implementing common blueprints for even and speedy growth and development, we regret to say that there appears to be a dearth of such realization on the part of our Okrika neighbours.
“We have painfully observed that anytime the people from this community occupy places of influence in the government of the day, violence and other untoward activities by their citizens against our people rises. We would thus advice a rethink and an approach that tilt more towards dialogue, rather than the resort to violence, as there is no reasonable and civilized option order than it,” the Movement stated.
