The uneasy calm in Warri after the protests that trailed the recent creation of Community Development Committees (CDC) in the three Warri LGAs by Governor James Ibori of Delta State, took a near tragic turn last July 30 when alleged loyalists of the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, attacked and kidnapped Mr. Alex O. Eyengho, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Warri Mirror, a Niger Delta-based grassroots newspaper.
            In a petition to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Sunday Ehindero, captioned “Attempted murder on me by identified agents of the Secretary to the Delta State Government (SSG), Dr. Emmanuel Ewetan Uduaghan,” Mr. Eyengho claimed that he was attacked by male youths numbering about 50, as he was departing the venue of a burial ceremony he had attended.
            Mr. Eyengho’s assailants allegedly stripped him naked, beat him to a pulp and later kidnapped him to Peemos Hotel in GRA, Warri, from where he escaped and ran to the Police Station, ‘A’ Division, Warri.
            While calling for a thorough investigation by the police, Eyengho, who is also the National Coordinator of the Itsekiri Interest Group (IIG), appealed to the IGP to ensure that all the culprits are brought to book, no matter how high or low in the society.
            “This is a clear case of attempted murder. I only managed to escape by the grace of God. I may not be lucky next time. I want to also put it on record that should anything happen to me, my wife, family or any member of Warri Mirror newspaper, the Secretary to the Delta State Government, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, should be held responsible,” Eyengho stated in his petition.
            He further stated: “Sir, as I speak to you, my life is in great danger. The life of my family is in great danger. The life of the entire team of Warri Mirror newspaper is in great danger. Please, step into this matter and let the culprits be brought to book and prosecuted in a law court. I don’t even know how guaranteed my security is, should I stay in Warri or Delta to follow up this case. Please, sir, save us from this set of Nigerians, who seem above the law!”
            The IGP, Ehindero, reacted promptly to the petition, which was personally handed over to him in Abuja by Mr. Alex Eyengho. Mr. Ehindero ordered the AIG in charge of Zone 5, Benin, Alhaji Gazali Lawal, to investigate the matter and report back.
            The AIG on receiving the IGP’s order, we gathered also instructed the Deputy Commissioner (DC) in charge of the Zone’s Criminal Investigation Department (ZCID), Mr. Osita, to commence investigation. Mr. Osita promptly instructed a 5-man team led by a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), Gabriel Ughoton, to investigate the matter and report findings to him.
            So far, five suspects have been invited to Zone 5, Benin, in connection to the criminal case. They include the Special Assistant (SA) to the Secretary to the Delta State Government, Mr. Godwin Abigor; Chairman of Warri North LGA, Prince Micheal Diden (aka Ejele); Mr. Thomas Ereyitomi, Mr. Billy Maami and Mr. Mode Akoma. They have all made statements and have been released on bail.
            Others whom Mr. Eyengho mentioned in his statement include Mr. Ayiri Emami, Mr. Ese Olugbo, Mr. Jumi Olelole and about 50 others whom he claimed he does not know by names but can identify some if he sees them. The police are still on the trail of all of them, even as investigations continue.
            Giving a graphic detail of the incident, Eyengho said, “as I was departing the venue of a burial ceremony in Warri at about 6:p.m. in company of Mr. Victor Agbateyiniro and Comrade D.O. Omunu, some male youths numbering about 50, violently descended on me. My assailants include Mr. Godwin Abigor, Prince Michael Diden (a.k.a Ejele), Mr. Ayiri Emami, Mr. Ese Olugbo, Mr. Jumi Olelole, Mr. Thomas Ereyitomi, among others.
            “They stripped me naked, descended on me with various types of weapons in public glare. They dispossessed me of my valuable property in the process. I managed to run first into the home of Mr. Eni Afolabi Umuko and later into the apartment of the landlady of the compound, but they forced their way into the two apartments, looted the place and later kidnapped me to Peemos Hotel from where I escaped to the Police Station. My sin, according to them, was that the July 2005 edition of Warri Mirror, particularly on the CDC creation, was very embarrassing to Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan and the Delta State Government,” he noted.
            All efforts to attract comments from Dr. Uduaghan did not produce positive result but one of his close aides, who pleaded anonymity claimed that the SSG was not in Nigeria on the day of the attack, and as such, could not be held responsible for it. He blamed the act on over enthusiastic fanatical loyalists of Dr. Uduaghan who are acting on their own. He maintained: “Alex Eyengho is a friend and brother to Dr. Udugahan. He will never wish Alex dead for any reason.” As the police dip further into the matter, only time will tell if the culprits of this attack would be brought to book and possibly charged to court.”
            However, as at the time of going to press, to Itsekiris in government and private sector, particularly those close to Dr. Uduaghan on one hand and Eyengho on the other hand, have been tirelessly putting heads together to see how peace can be brokered out of police station or court.
            “I can tell you that the SSG have no pre-knowledge of the attack. If he did, as a man of peace, he would have discouraged it. He has blamed the boys and told them to their faces that they are on their own. Our own duty now is to see how a win-win peace can be brokered without further escalating the matter,” one of the peacemakers stated.
            Meanwhile, there has been widespread condemnation of the attack on Mr. Eyengho. According to Prince Charles Omadeli, a prominent opinion leader in Warri, the act is not only callous but also barbaric and entirely uncivilised.
            “We are in a democratic world where freedom of speech is guaranteed. Everyone has the right to go to press and air his or her view over issues. The onus to prove the contrary squarely rests on the person who is accused. The accused should have also gone to press to say their own side of the story instead of taking the laws into their hands. By now, those affected should have realised their mistakes and gone back to beg for forgiveness.”
            According to Mr. Kingsley Tenuma (a.k.a Afere), a prominent youth leader in Warri, the attack shocked him, even as he begins to wonder where the Itsekiri youths who are supposed to be working to take over the affairs of the tribe from the elders are going.
            Tenuma blamed the security lapses in Warri because, according to him, there were many security officers around the scene of the incident, who did nothing to control the situation.
            “Those involved including their sponsors should be brought to book, no matter their status in the society. Nobody is above the law. Teaching these people a lesson will serve as deterrent to others,” he further stated.
            The youth leader however admonished that this should not frustrate the Editor and his team. According to him, Warri Mirror has come to stay, adding that they should see this as a challenge and brace up to it.
            “As 2007 fasts approaching, I call on the youths especially the Itsekiri youths not to allow themselves to be used as thugs,” Afere also stated.
            To Prince Mike Arayuwa Wilkie, a Public Commentator and the current Publicity Secretary of the oil-rich Ugborodo Community, to adopt the philosophy Hitlerism of the Mussolini’s approach is to degenerate and demonstrate the peak of unbridled gansterism, pointing out that the ill-treatment of Eyengho was certainly an over reaction.
            “Uduaghan is humble and gentle. He should therefore call these boys to order so as to guide against the possibility of denting his political image. Eyengho deserves an unreserved apology. Uduaghan must act very fast and save his political status and person. There is no better way to handle the damage control.”
            National Leader (South-South) of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in Delta, Comrade Prince D. O. Omunu, described the attack as an uncivilised attempt to shut up the Editor of Warri Mirror.
            He said anybody not satisfied with a publication in a particular newspaper has the option of causing a rejoinder to be published in the same paper or sue for libel, adding that the brutal attack on the Editor is sadistic and barbaric.
            “I felt so bad over the attack because I was a living witness. It was a callous attack. It was an attempted murder. Such people and their sponsor are not even fit to be in politics. No sensible politician toys with journalists. This is bad moreso that it is Itsekiri attacking another Itsekiri.”
            Benin-based Itsekiri opinion leader and prominent executive member of the Allison Ayida-led Itsekiri Leaders’ Forum (ILF), Mr. A.S. Mene, described the attack as callous and unprecedented, stressing that the mastermind and all the culprits must be brought on their knees before the law.
            “What is Itsekiri turning into? Does that mean people can no longer air their views because of the ambition of an individual? You mean if I speak against the personal interest of certain individuals of Itsekiri extraction, I will be beaten up, stripped naked and treated like a common criminal in the public? This certainly is a new trend in Itsekiri history, which must not be allowed to continue. It is a very backward style,” Mr. Mene fumed.
            On his part, Senior Lecturer at the University of Port Harcourt, Mr. Lucky Akaruesi (Ph.d), wonders why “the Warri branch of Uduaghan Boys, which has now assumed a photo-type ‘Bakassi Boys’ of the Igbo speaking states, could, with impunity, descend on Eyengho merely because he was doing his jobs as a journalist and thus raising critical issues and drawing the attention of Itsekiris to the danger ahead.”
            “I am certain that those rascals never read that edition of Warri Mirror as most of them cannot. It was most likely that they were simply told that Alex Eyengho has written a ‘heresy’ against ‘Oga Doctor SSG’ and Islamic fatwa was accordingly pronounced on Eyengho (possibly) by the ‘Oga’ himself. If taking up issues with Dr. Uduaghan as ‘ordinary’ SSG could attract humiliation to such individuals who ventured, what of when he becomes “His Excellency?” The Uduaghan Boys will abandon the use of whips for scorpions,” Akaresi stated.
            Mr. Eni-Afolabi Jologho Umuko, a prominent Itsekiri opinion leader and the current Publicity Secretary of the Itsekiri Leaders’ Forum (ILF), while describing the attempt on Mr. Eyengho’s life as “a brutal assault,” stressed that it is a sheer barbarism and mindless vengeance meted to a fellow Itsekiri youth for simply expressing his personal opinion on an issue that affects “and will continue to affect, even haunt all Itsekiris for a long time to come.
            “For those who had the temerity to invade and ransack my house and that of my landlady in their quest for Alex Eyengho and in the process stole my daughter’s handset, and my wife’s money. I salute you. I have forgiven you because my landlady has forgiven me. But remember the Latin axiom…. Caveat raptor…. Ravisher beware,” Mr. Umuko stated.