Udu killing: Crisis looms as Urhobo youths ask Ijaw to leave

Tension heightened on Thursday as Urhobo youths of Udu Kingdom, Udu Local Government Area of Delta State have asked  Ijaw indigenes resident in the communities to immediate leave over the alleged killing of their kinsman by suspected Ijaw youths.

The youths also demanded for an immediate release of some youths from Ayama and Epame communities who were allegedly abducted by suspected Ijaw youths from Isaba Communities in Warri South West Local Government Area of the state.

The Delta police command through the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Warri Area Command, Mohammed Mu’Azu, had earlier confirmed that armed men from Isaba, an Ijaw community reportedly shot and killed Obruche Sunday, a youth of Ayama (Urhobo) when hostility started between the two communities last week Thursday.

Although, the state police command later claimed those alleged to have been abducted had regained freedom, Udu youths insisted that the missing youths had not been found, calling on the state governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, to immediately wade into the crisis to avoid a full blown war between Urhobo and the Ijaw ethnic nationalities.

Addressing newsmen at Otor-Udu, the ancestral home of the Udu people, Youth President, Udu Kingdom, Mr Sunday Subi and Secretary Dr Dennis Kpoma on behalf of all Udu youths on Thursday warned that they would resist further killing of their youths by Ijaw youths.