ERA & Our Philosophy Committees & Contacts Reports
ERA & Our Philosophy
Committees & Contacts
Reports
ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS ACTION (ERA)
Dateline: December 15, 1999
214 Uselu-Lagos Road, P.O. Box 10577, Benin City, Nigeria
tel/fax + 234 52 600 165 e-mail: [email protected]
Subject: Voices from Odi (part 3)
Dispatch: Odi & Yenagoa
Summary
It was announced over the radio that everyone should return to the
community. Based on that announcement, indigenes of Odi obediently went back
to their town. Little did they know that death was awaiting them in Odi. Mr.
Tombara Gagariga, a retired civil servant, also heard the news and decided
to take his 70 year old mother home. Sights of wanton destruction greeted
him: a destroyed house and properties. In addition he discovered that his
grandmother was missing.
Many people had lost their lives. The king of Odi, King Bolo, was shot on
the leg for demanding that buildings should not be torched or dynamited.
TOMBARA GAGARIGA'S TESTIMONY:
"We heard it over the radio that everyone should come back to the village and
so we brought our mother home only discover that everything in the house has
been burnt down.
"We had her 70th birth day party in October so after the party we took her to
Port Harcourt to spend sometime. Shortly afterwards we heard of the crisis
and decided she should remain in Port Harcourt for sometime. When it was
announced that people should come back to the village we decided to bring
her home, only to come and see that everything in the house has been
destroyed. All the properties in the house have been destroyed.
"We have not seen our grandmother. She was in the house when we took our
mother to Port Harcourt. We have not seen the man who was living with
either, but we were told that he fled to the bush when the soldiers came. He
could not carry an old woman, so he left and ran away.
"When the government said everybody should come back home we thought the
houses were intact, we thought everyone.s property was intact because what
we heard over the radio was that the soldiers were coming to arrest some
robbers. We never expected that they would come and burn down houses and
loot properties.
"A lot of our things have been looted because we can not see their traces in
the ashes of the things burnt down. Our television sets, video sets, our
boxes, (some of them are fire proof), our clothes, everything has been
removed.
"What they cannot carry they have destroyed. You can see that our generator
and other things have been destroyed. You can also see that they have
written several things on the wall of our house. I don't know what they
mean. If you go inside you will see the kind of things they have written:
"Bayelsa State will be silenced," "Odi will talk no more."
"From all indications they were living here, we can see our pots and other
things they were using to cook. When they were leaving, they destroyed
everything. Can the Army be so mean as to destroy Bibles, plates and the
things they used inside the house? Even the house, they used as a cover,
they burnt down before leaving. Can they be so mean?
"Even during the civil war, houses were not destroyed like this. But how can
they destroy the whole village because they came to arrest some robbers? Is
that why they should destroy all the properties? I have not seen this type
of a thing in my life. President Obasanjo should do something to
rehabilitate my mother because I don't know where to go with her. They say
we should come home, I have brought her. Obasanjo should come and make a
place for my mother to live or else she will live here in the village as it
is, and she might die.
"I don't want to take her back to Port Harcourt, let Obasanjo come and see
things here for himself, let him come and see what the Army he sent here has
done. I have been listening to radio and reading newspapers, but I have
never read nor heard anything like this.
"I don't know what to do. I don't even know how my mother is going to start
her life again. She is retired and her pension is just about N1,000 a month
How can she build another house? She has no money to start her life again.
"I am even more bitter with the things they have written on our walls. This
is the police station, they did not stay there. They came to our house and
wrote rubbish.
"I want President Obasanjo to come and see this place. Let him come and see
Odi for himself."
MR. JONES LUGBO'S TESTIMONY (AT YENAGOA):
"In the afternoon of November 20, we received an information that the
military wants to attack Odi. No sooner than we received the information, we
started receiving some artillery bombardments. In the process five "Asawana"
boys were killed. Their heads were cut off and their bodies were beyond
recognition. Only two could be recognised.
"After a while, we started hearing rifles and some shelling until around 5
p.m. In the morning, we started seeing soldiers. The next thing we saw was
that they started destroying all the buildings with their weapons. They
continued the destruction from Oborubeinghe quarters to the end of the town
and back again. We all ran into the bush and we were peeping from there.
Presently in Odi you can only pick the First Bank office and the Police
Post. Even King Bolo, the King of Odi was shot in the leg simply because he
protested against the destruction of the buildings.
"To be candid, if we are to estimate the destruction, it is more than five
billion Naira, because you can't see any building again. The only buildings
you can see at Odi are thatched buildings and mud houses. We were in the
bush for three days. Mosquitoes and other insect beat us and we almost
starved to death since there was no food.
"I eventually escaped from Odi together with some other people through the
bush. Then we swam across the River Nun. We were two, we swam across to
Sampou then from there, we escaped through another creek. We got to Gbarain,
then to Okolobiri, then through bush path we came to Yenagoa. Even the dress
I am wearing right now belongs to my younger brother.
"To add more to my problem, I am a victim of the fight between the OPC and
Ijaw people in Lagos. During the incident, our family head was attacked and
his hand was cut off while a relative was attacked with acid. I lost all my
property as a result of the incident. I returned home from Lagos hoping that
when I come home I will have rest of mind.
"But I never had rest. My three-bed room flat at Odi is destroyed. In fact, I
don't know where to lay my head. In fact, I am confused."
WHAT YOU CAN DO