Efforts are intensifying to secure the release of Ewu-Okuama community leaders who have been held by the Nigerian military for nearly a year following the killing of 17 soldiers on a reported peace mission to Okuama, Ughelli South Local Government Area, in early 2024.

Senator Ede Dafinone, representing Delta Central Senatorial District, disclosed this during a radio programme monitored in Warri on Sunday.

It will be recalled that between August 18 and 20, 2024, the military arrested several Okuama leaders, including Prof. Arthur Ekpekpo, Mr. Julius Oghoroko, Mr. Bernard Esegba, the President General of Okuama Community, Pa James Oghoroko, Treasurer Pa Dennis Okugbaye, Chief Belvis Adogbo, Pa Anthony Ahwemuria, and Mrs. Rita Akata. They have remained in custody without trial.

Dafinone condemned their continued detention “without formal charges for about a year” and renewed the call for their unconditional release or for them to be arraigned before a competent court.

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“Efforts to secure the release of our people currently in captivity have been ongoing,” he said. “This is not just the work of my office, but also of several senior figures in Delta State — including some abroad-based Urhobo leaders — who are committed to ensuring that these individuals are either released or formally charged in an open court.”

The senator stressed that the matter remains a top priority. “The families are in constant touch with me, and we are guiding them in their approaches while they, in turn, lend support to ours. I can confirm that my office is in regular contact with both the Nigerian Army and the justice system to find ways of resolving the situation. Our goal is simple: to secure the release of our people from detention.”

He revealed that one of the detainees had died in custody. “We are pressing the authorities to release his body to his family so he can be given a proper burial,” he said.

Dafinone emphasised that all stakeholders, including the Delta State governor and other prominent Urhobo leaders, were working together. “We are not sleeping over the plight of our Okuama brothers held in military custody for over a year now. But this is not a matter to be used for politics or to score cheap political points, as some would like. We are talking about human lives — our brothers.”

 

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