By Sunday Apah
The Vice Chairman of Okpaka community, Udu Local Government Area of Delta State, Mr. Daniel Ukohon, has vehemently denied recent allegations made in a local tabloid claiming that Hon. Peter Ogbavweni, Mr. Friday Farah, President General of Okpaka community, and Mr. Austin Emakpor, Youth Chairman of Okpaka community, were incarcerated on charges of attempted murder and malicious damage.
In a statement, the Vice Chairman clarified that the Okpaka community leaders were not implicated in the purported attempted murder of David Miller or the vandalism of PETGO International Hotel.
The statement pointed out that it was one Peter Golagha who, allegedly, in a confrontational incident with a group of individuals armed with dangerous weapons, engaged in an altercation with David Miller.
“It has been observed that every three years, he (Golagha and Miller) typically intrude into the community with a group of individuals, resulting in various incidents, including the alleged injury of Moses OkI by one of them in the presence of Moses’s mother in 2017.
“Similar incidents occurred in 2020 and 2023, during which Mr. Vwede Saka, Ejovwo Oki, Onoriode Essi, and numerous others sustained injuries from gunshots.
“On one occasion, they held the community captive for over five hours in an attempt to maintain permanent control of the community until they were chaded out of the community by the Nigerian Army.
“Furthermore, they reportedly extorted money from individuals who had lost their loved ones before permitting them to transport the deceased to the mortuary, a practice previously unknown in the community.
Ukonhon clarified, “It was Mr. Peter Golagha who was remanded by the High Court, Otor-Udu, on April 28, 2022, as per the court documents in suit no. OUHC/132/2019.
David Miller does not hold the position of the youth president in Okpaka community because he is not a genuine member of Okpaka community. His father is from Egbo-urhie community in Ughelli South LGA, while his maternal roots trace back to Borno state.
There have been concerns about his adoption of a royal title and the alleged conferring of chieftaincy titles on individuals from Okpaka, Opete, and Enerhen communities. These actions have raised questions as there is an established monarch in Udu kingdom, to whom everyone in the region owes allegiance.
