The burnt house at Iyara
By Ejiro Nesisa
The news are everywhere that a house was set ablaze in Iyara, a community in Warri South Local Government Area Delta State. It was not only a house, tricycles were riddled with bullets and few persons sustained various degrees of injuries. The question which hangs in the air is: how come? Some unidentified youths armed to the teeth invaded the peaceful community on that day to the surprise of the residents who were at the euphoria of the night breeze.
Reliable sources in the community said the invaders armed with guns, cutlasses and other dangerous weapons at about 10:47pm on Sunday, shot sporadically into the air to scare away residents before carrying out their actions. It was learnt that residents of the area especially youths, women and children reportedly ran helter-skelter for safety as the assailants branded their weapons freely to scare them away.
When Bailout Magazine visited the scene of the incident, it got glimpse of the tricycles and a nearby storey-building riddled with bullets of the assailants just as many people talked in hush tones trying to figure out the immediate and remote cause of the sudden attacks.
While the investigation is ongoing why the attack was carried out, many people are of the opinion; it is not connected to the recent Wards delineation exercise recently announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) particularly in the Warri South Area. It was however learnt from a reliable source, that assailants had two days earlier, carried out attack in some areas within the Local Government Area to register their grievances as regards the Wards delineation which was announced by INEC, aftermath of the Supreme Court judgement on the case.
The quest to unearth the reason behind the attack hence, the Chairman of Warri South Local Government Area, Comrade Isaac Agbateyinro was contacted. According to him, those who carried out this act are yet unknown. However, he said, when he heard the matter, he immediately mobilized adequate security forces to the area to forestall further destruction of property adding that, normalcy has returned to the area.
His words:”As I speak with you, adequate security agencies have been deployed to the area and they are maintaining law and order and I can tell you that peace had since returned to the area”.
Also commenting on the matter is a former youth leader and stakeholder in the Iyara Community, Chief Onoriode Okoh. He expressed surprise over the attack and wondered what would have provoked such an attack on the people in the area that brought about the setting a building ablaze and riddling tricycles with bullets.
He however urged the people not to attach tribal sentiments to the attack while he sued for peaceful coexistence of all the ethnic groups in the area. Chief Okoh also cautioned the youths in the area not take laws into hands by destroying any property nor injure anybody while investigation is ongoing to fish out perpetrators of the dastardly act.
His words:“We don’t want anybody to attach tribal sentiments to the attack. The Urhobos, Itsekiris and Ijaws are intermarried and have been living together peacefully over the years. So, we don’t want ethnic coloration to this attack”
He added: “Should there be any issue, as some have alleged in some quarters that it is connected to Wards delineation in Warri South Council, such persons can channel their grievances to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) rather than cause disaffection among the people who are intermarried and have lived together peacefully for decades”.
While expressing gratitude to the security agencies for their timely intervention in quelling the skirmishes and bringing normalcy to the area, Chief Onoriode expressed hope that the matter would be investigated thoroughly and the perpetrators fished out to face the wrath of the law.
In his response to the issue of Wards delineation in Warri South, a Warri-based legal practitioner, Chief Robinson Ariyo, faulted the manner by which the exercise was carried out by all the stakeholders involved in the process.
His words:“I have watched with keen interest and rapt attention, the events leading to the INEC’ proposal for Warri Federal Constituency of the 4th day of April, 2025 and would have not commented on same for the fact that, as admirers of Karl Marx, we subscribe to the view that:“To leave an error unrefuted is to encourage intellectual immorality. Consequently, notwithstanding the fact that the said proposal is inherently and manifestly invalid by reason of gross violation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, INEC’ guidelines and deliberate contempt of Court; the combination of which, should ordinarily not require our comments, we now elect not to leave this poorly executed and corrupt exercise without a proper treatment”.
Accordingly, we note as follows: “That INEC was aware at the material time, that there was and remains not just a pending appeal on the subject matter of the said event it proposed and conducted on the 4th of April, 2025, but that there is in fact, a Motion on Notice duly filed before the Court to the knowledge of INEC, seeking a stay of actions regarding the said event in particular and associated activities in general. May we refer INEC to the Court processes already served on it as at the 2nd day of April, 2025 in this regard”, he concluded.