By Brave Dickson
The Rivers State National Orientation Agency (NOA) has waded into the lingering crisis between Umuebulu community in Etche and the Okrikans over banana plantation.
It was learnt that the crisis which was under-reported took place before the Covid-19 lockdown in the state leaving scores of persons killed.
Not happy with the situation in the troubled communities, the state NOA said it had sent a delegation to the communities to ascertain the state of the crisis and report back.
The agency further called on the state government to act fast in order to prevent the crisis from escalating.
The State Director of the agency, Barr Young Ayotamuno authoritatively told our correspondent that those killed in the crisis were yet to be buried because of the Covid-19 restrictions on burials in the state.
His words: “Very recent information that we have gathered has revealed that there is a crisis between the Umuebulu community in Etche and the Okrika banana plantation community in Rivers State.
“Houses were burnt and some persons lost their lives in the crisis but because of the Covid-19 restrictions on burial, those who were killed were yet to be buried.
“We are calling for a timely intervention by the government into the crisis to restore peace.
“And we believe that the state governor, Nyesom Wike will do the needful in order to nip that matter in the bud.
“On our part, we will be sending some of our officers to the affected communities to get an appropriate brief of what the situation is to enable us to apply some peace architectural dialogue towards resolving that matter.”
