Movement for Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has condemned the seeming return of barbaric killings to Ogoniland, Rivers state.

The Ogoni apex organ of cohesion expressed the worry yesterday over the beheading of Josiah Piabari, a Boys Scout Commander in Ogoni by yet unknown person as three others are missing.

Piabari, native of Yeghe, Gokana Local Government Area (LGA) was found beheaded 15 August with his body mutilated at a disputed farm area which has stirred lingering conflicts between the Yeghe and Boue poeple in Gokana and Khana LGAs respectively.

At a meeting of MOSOP Kingdom Coordinators and Chapter Leaders yesterday in Bori, Khana LG headquarters, Snr. Apostle Celestine Viura, Spokesperson, charged the Police to unravel the killers of Piabari and the three others missing.

“Reports of the barbaric beheading of Piabari of Yeghe and three others missing are strongly condemnable. We are deeply touched by these sad tales and urge the Police to deliver a satisfactory report on this matter.”

“MOSOP regrets seeming breakdown of dialogue initiated by Khana and Gokana LGAs over the farm disputes between the Boue and Yeghe communities and urges the two local authorities to speed up intervention to mutually resolve the conflicts.

“We are deeply worried about the gradual return of conflicts and killings in Ogoni which could be prelude to large-scale conflicts between communities if not nipped in the bud,” Viula remarked.

He urged Ogoni communities to register grievances in peaceful ways and not to take laws into their hands, noting that MOSOP will only stand by peaceful means to bring the perpetrators of these killings to account.”(Vanguard)

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