The Delta State Commissioner of Police, Abaniwonda Olufemi, has said Okuama and Okoloba communities have always been volatile with the land dispute lingering for years.

The CP, however, said strategies were been effected to arrest the criminals who killed 16 military personnel in Okuama in Ughelli South Local Government Area of the state.

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Olufemi stressed that there is perennial land dispute between the communities over fishing rights.

The CP said this while speaking on Arise TV on Wednesday morning.

According to him, “Effort is being made to ensure that the perpetrators of this crime are brought to book. It is not everything that needs to come up in the air. We are working in conjunction with other security agencies and I can assure you that we are making progress on that.”

Meanwhile, the Labour Party (LP) candidate during the last governorship election in Bayelsa State, Engr. Udengs Eradiri, has appealed to the military to identify, arrest and deal decisively with only persons directly and remotely connected to the gruesome killing of military personnel in Okuama community, and not attack the communities.

Eradiri, a former President of the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide in a statement in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State on Wednesday strongly condemned the incident describing it as a pogrom.

While describing the killings as barbaric, heinous and unimaginable, Eradiri said no circumstances should have warranted such magnitude of wickedness against officers and personnel of a law enforcement agency.

Daily Trust reports that in retaliation to the Okuama incident, soldiers on Sunday invaded Igbomotoru Community in Southern Ijaw LGA of Bayelsa State in search for a militant kingpin who was involved in the killing of soldiers, killed about 11 people and burnt down houses.

He said while he acknowledged the provocation of the military by the dastardly act, however, there should be restraint in the way and manner it had chosen to address the issue. (Daily Trust)

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