Civil rights activist, Godstime Ukuanovwe, tells
BIODUN BUSARI
how high level of kidnapping and killings triggered a protest in the Abraka community, Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State
What happened during a recent protest at Abraka?
The protest started with about 20 to 50 people. The residents of Abraka came out to protest the insecurity that has pervaded the town. It was initially planned for two days, May 27 and 28, 2025. The essence of the protest was to register our displeasure against the lingering kidnapping incidents, which have created panic among the people.
Abraka is a university community because of Delta State University, Abraka. So, for a long time, we have been experiencing insecurity. Residents of the town are abducted every day for ransom. The criminals come from the ungoverned area of this community.
What do you mean by ungoverned area in the community?
The bushes or forests are the ungoverned area. This is where they hide and plan their moves. When they kidnap our people, they take them to the bushes and call their families for a ransom.
What sparked the protest was after a certain young man was kidnapped. Then his captors called, and a ransom was negotiated. So, the brother went to pay the ransom. Upon getting to pay the ransom, the brother was kidnapped again, and they demanded another ransom.
The same day the incident happened, another young man named Chika escaped abduction. When he saw the kidnappers, he swerved and lost control of his vehicle. He hit the fence of his house. He passed out in the process. When the kidnappers felt he was dead, they went with his girlfriend. These two incidents birthed the protest.
What demand did you make during the protest?
When we came out to demonstrate, we didn’t make any demand on the protest ground. We were just there on the first day. Also, the protest was not a procession. It was a one-location protest at the police junction of the community. It was a one-venue protest.
While we were there, we felt that it was necessary for us to properly outline our demands. Our intention was to get the attention of the governor, who is the Chief Security Officer of the state. We felt the matter was beyond the intervention of a mayor, Divisional Police Officer, or even a local government chairman.
Are you saying you never made any demand before the protest was interrupted?
We registered our demand that there should be a proper investigation into kidnappings and insecurity in the town. We submitted that an investigation should be carried out to expose the hideouts of the kidnappers in the bushes.
We also demanded that the leadership of Miyetti Allah, which is a registered organisation for Fulani herdsmen, should be invited by the governor (Sheriff Oborevwori) for interrogation or investigation. The disturbing level of insecurity is not limited to Abraka; it is happening everywhere in Delta State, including Ogwashi, Mosogar, Okpara, and Okoro, among others.
I can tell you that many landlords in Abraka have abandoned their houses to go and become tenants in other towns because of the level of insecurity. The belief has been that the governor and the security agencies will act on whatever the outcome of the meeting brought.
How did the protest turn into chaos?
The protest went well on the first day. The Divisional Police Officer came to address the protesters. He spoke at length about how the police did not have adequate manpower and sophisticated gadgets like drones to combat the kidnappers.
We took note of his address and came out again on the second day, but nobody came to address us. It was on the second day that we strategised to have another one on the third day, which we tagged, ‘Abraka mega protest against insecurity and kidnapping.’ So, on Monday, 2nd June, 2025. That was the third day that the protest escalated.
How did it escalate?
Before we could even arrive at the venue of the protest, we started getting reports that some soldiers were intimidating protesters. Courageously, some of us went there. When we arrived at the venue, these soldiers started intimidating us. But with the number of people starting to troop into the protest ground, they had no option but to angrily leave.
Before they left, one of the officers snapped my picture and told me that he was going to deal with me. Regardless of the threat, we continued the exercise. What gave us the courage was that we were protesting against insecurity, not against anybody, because we were not calling names.
The protest, which started around 8 am, continued until 2 pm when the military came back and started shooting sporadically into the air. They were beating protesters and hitting them with their guns.
An officer grabbed my neck from behind and introduced himself as the commanding officer. He said some scary things that I cannot even utter. While I was explaining to him that the protest was against insecurity, I saw others coming at me as protesters ran helter-skelter for safety.
Someone was already bleeding from the head after he was hit. I escaped from the protest ground miraculously. It was when I got to safety that I was told that the soldiers vandalised my vehicle.
What was your next action after escaping?
I received a call from an army captain. He asked me to report to their base if I had anything to say. I asked him how he expected me to come after I was threatened during the protest and my vehicle was destroyed. He then said he didn’t know that it was my car.
I told him that I would not come. After I spoke to him, I sent some of our people to go and take the vehicle. I begged them to go with a vulcaniser to help me inflate the tyres and move the car. The next day, which was the 3rd of June 2025, we got the news in the morning that the police and local hunters had a gun duel with kidnappers. They killed four kidnappers and recovered an AK-47.
We rushed to the police station to celebrate. The entire town was ecstatic. We were happy because our protest yielded results. Surprisingly, when I got home a few hours later, I was told that the kidnappers had come to abduct two people on the same day. It was a lady who got that report.
The DPO and his team immediately mobilised to the location that the girl had given them. Unfortunately, before they could get there, they were ambushed. The vehicle the DPO used to lead his team was attacked. They engaged in a gun battle with the kidnappers, but they escaped.
Some of the security operatives were wounded. I was home when I received this information. They came with the bodies of the two people kidnapped. One of them was Marcus Dafe. He was the grandson of our former traditional ruler. All of a sudden, the celebration turned to mourning for the community.
Do
you think the killing of Dafe and the other person was a reprisal?
Yes, we all felt what happened was a reprisal. Later in the evening, we saw that the Fulani community residents were moving out of the town in droves. The question we’ve been asking is: why did the military attack us during our peaceful protest against kidnapping?
If our demands were not genuine, the police wouldn’t have gone to the bush and killed four kidnappers. Why can’t these soldiers join the police in the operation to capture the kidnappers?
There was tension in Abraka to the extent that the Vice Chancellor of DELSU had to call off all academic activities. As of Tuesday, June 10, normalcy has returned gradually but not fully.
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