Group demands soldiers withdrawal from communities in Niger Delta

A Niger Delta pressure group, the Ijaw Peoples Development Initiative, has called for the immediate evacuation of the soldiers allegedly occupying Udouda and Okobe communities in Egene kingdom in Ahoada West Local Government Area of Rivers State to allow homeless and defenseless residents to return to their homes, without further delay.

The group made the call in a statement signed by its national president, Austin Ozobo, copies of which were made available to journalists in Warri, Delta State.

IPDI insisted that it has not seen any provocation in the South-South or Niger Delta region currently to have made the military bombard, kill and conquer a residential community compared to the glaring provocations in northern Nigeria which the military is sentimentally ignoring.

Consequently, IPDI called on the Nigerian military authorities to prevail on the Chief of Army Staff to evacuate soldiers out of Udouda and Okobe communities without further delay to allow the fleeing residents to return to their homes “as hundreds of persons have been made homeless and suffering as a result of these invasions.”