Trauma in the Niger Delta

Ogbe-Ijoh - Inhabitants of this town bear the brunt of the latest military offensive against their communities rather stoically. Women, young and old, with their children dot the nooks and crannies of Ogbe-Ijoh, in the Warri South West Local Government area of Delta State.

Looking dishevelled, they scrambled for mattresses, food and other relief materials, distributed by officials of the council and staff of the National Emergency Management Authority. They have, literally, become “refugees” in their own country. Looking harassed and still in shock, it appears they need psychotherapy too.

Many are too numb to speak coherently, often mumbling their words. The few that could express themselves spoke haltingly in Pidgin English, clustering round us. On Wednesday, May 20, locating them proved more difficult than the discovery of oil in their communities, the commodity which had turned out to be a curse rather than blessing to them.

They all fled from Okerenkoko and Oporoza communities. Depending on who was telling the story: the people were either fleeing from soldiers or members of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta.

There has been continious bombardmenent of the area since May 13. A common trend, however, in the narrative of all actors in the saga is that residents of these communities in Gbaramatu kingdom of Ijaw nation, the fourth largest nationality in Nigeria, have become homeless. Many have been killed and many more rendered homeless. Families have been separated with some mothers not knowing the whereabouts of their children.

“I just deliver this pikin”

In the midst of the ensuing confusion, Happiness Michael, 19, delivered a baby with the bush serving as the maternity ward. She had probably imagined having her first child surrounded by doctors and nurses. Instead of a bed and a baby cot, trees and birds were her companions.

There were no medical personnel at hand and as at the time NEXT spoke to her, neither she nor her baby had received any form of medical attention. “I just deliver this pikin wey you see for my hand five days ago as the wahala take start,” Ms. Michael said at the Divisional Police Headquarters in Ogbe-Ijoh where the displaced persons clustered, waiting for relief materials from the Warri South West Local Government and National Emergency Management Authority staff from Abuja.

Ms. Michael said that she had been in the bush since she gave birth to her baby. “I born the baby for Oporoza and I don dey inside bush since running away from soja, me and my pikin.” Her husband was yet to see his wife’s five day old baby. “I no know where my husband dey, I dey call him number he no dey reach.

I dey manage where I dey, na me and this cloth wey I wear so comot. I neva name the baby, na miracle I still dey call am. I born am the day the army come drive us comot for our village and na run we dey run until when we see people wey use dem boat carry us reach Warri.”

Other young women from Gbaramatu have their own tales of woe to tell. One of them is 20-year-old Christiana Maxwell, who was still traumatised by her experience. “Me myself I no know how the thing happen,” she said.

“I dey Gbaramatu where I dey with my husband I no know how dis fight take start. I only know say army people dey fight with Ijaw people then my husband say make I run comot.” She added that she did not know where her son was, having left him behind while making her escape. “My son dey water side now where I leave am as I dey run,” Ms. Maxwell said.

Lamentations Galore

As we continued seeking people to interview, many more emerged from their hideout.Convinced that we were not Possibly, the “army people’ as they call soldiers, many, mainly women,mobbed us in their desperation to tell their stories.

The most important things they need are food, clothing and shelter. They also asked for government’s help in rebuilding their houses and businesses which they say have been destroyed in the military attack. Curiously, they did not distinguish between the local, state, and federal government but they all seemed aware that “army people” were not their own people pa basing this on the scale of the attack that they had experienced.

In Warri, a woman, who identified herself simply as Florence from Okerenkoko, lost her uncle in the confusion. “Na my mama wey come tell me say my papa brother don die as we dey run,” she said wiping away tears. Together with her only child and her mother, they swam their way out of the reach of bazooka guns and heavy artillery. “The guns just dey do gbam gbam,” she said gesticulating with her hands while pointing to the sky to describe the soldiers’ attack. “We run enter river wey we swim reach another village and people from that village come find boat for us wey we carry come here(Warri).”

For Comfort Tony, 20, her main problem is that she has had to stop school because of the onslaught. In halting English, she attempted to recount what befell her community. She was forced to switch to the community lingua franca, Pidgin English for ease of communication. Ms. Tony spoke of how her studies were interrupted on the day the attack started.

“We dey school, we dey inside class when people say dem they shoot some people say na poison dem dey fire at us and we just dey run,” she said. “As we enter bush na him we see one woman wey get belle. She fell down and pikin catch am and she come born the pikin in the bush.” She too would have given Michael Phelps, the American swimmer who won eight gold medals in the last Olympics a serious run for his money.

Together with her three sisters and her mother, she swam for nearly an entire day just to get away from the cascading bullets from helicopters. The whereabouts of their father and brothers remain unknown. She said they were in the bush for three days where they were kept company by the regular sounds of gunshots.

Comfort, Florence and even Happiness Michael’s woes pale in comparison to that of a lady who simply identified herself as Victoria. She escaped from Sanomi Creek. At the time we spoke to Victoria, she had seen nothing of her four children,husband or the mother she was forced to leave behind because the woman could not walk. “I no know how my mama wan take escape this war because she no fit waka at all,” She said.

She also said that her sister was pregnant and she does not know if the sister has had her baby.

Where are the men?

Most of the men have not been seen. When we visited the make shift camp located beside the police station in Ogbe-Ijoh, no man was in sight.

On Monday, May 18, soldiers raided the general hospital in the town where the displaced people were camped. Not only did the soldiers arrest some men , the only doctor in the hospital was picked up too, allegedly for harbouring militants in the premises. It was the intervention of the local government chairman that saved the doctor.

A youth corps member who spoke under the condition of anonymity, confirmed that the soldiers were at the hospital on that day. “They were here, and I’m sure that’s why there’s nobody to talk to you,” the corps member said.

However, on Thursday 21st, some of the men emerged from their hideout to receive their share of the relief materials. One of them, Johnson Ndolo, 50, a fisherman, said that there was nothing left in his village as everything was bombed. He, too, had been in the village before fleeing but without three of his six children, his wife, and his mother.

It was clear the man were afraid of being arrested as militants. Mr. Ndolo, corroborated the email Jomo Gbomo, spokesperson for the Movement of the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, sent in response to our enquiries.

“The soldiers have been freely burning houses of the inhabitants in Oporosa and Okerenkoko and looting,” the spokesperson said. It is difficult to ascertain the number of people displaced by the fighting. Sarkinyaki Bello, a major general and Joint Task Force commander refused to confirm the number of those displaced.

“I can only tell you that the exercise had been done in an excellent manner,” adding he coordinated the attack on Tompolo, a well-known militant, with a military helicopter . Twelve soldiers are missing. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, however, claim that over 30, 000 people have been displaced, insisting though it lost “just five gallant boys” in the fighting. It reiterated its call for the release of Henry Okah and the involvement of international mediators and the United Nations to oversee a coordinated process to end the crisis as there is no “iota of trust left between the government and the militants.”

Collateral damage

The Delta State governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan has temporarily relocated to Warri because of the crisis. A FIFA inspection team, visiting Nigeria on a facilities inspection tour refused to visit the city.However,the state’s information commissioner, Oma Djebah, insists that Warri is safe for people to come to and live in.

Sources close to the Delta State government say there is disquiet over the fact that Mr Uduaghan was not privy to the offensive by the Joint Military Task Force; and neither, it appears, was the Vice President Goodluck Jonathan. Mr Jonathan was in Europe at the start of the crisis while Mr Uduaghan was also said to be outside the country visiting with his sick daughter.

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