No Life Lost In Mgbede Crisis –Monarch

Mgbede Community in the Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni local government area of Rivers State has described as untrue a newspaper report which claimed that ten persons lost their lives, following sporadic shooting by armed youths, thereby, forcing the community to run into the bush and neighbouring communities.

The community has condemned the said report not by The Tide that the armed youths were aggrieved over a court injunction restraining the paramount ruler from interfering in the affairs of the youths.

Addressing newsmen at Mgbede community over the weekend, the paramount ruler of the community, Eze Ogbagu (Eze Ali) Mgbede, HRH, Eze Chadick Ogor, who described the publication as malicious, noted that there was no time the people of his community ran into the bush and nearby communities as a result of shooting by armed youths as the community has remained peaceful .

The monarch expressed shock that a newspaper could indulge in such a fabricated falsehood with the intention to mislead the people and paint the community black before the government and the public, adding that, it was unethical for the paper to rush to the press without cross-checking the facts.

Explaining what happened in the community, the Eze Ogbagu stated that at about 7.00am on Friday, June 4, 2010, there was a minor argument that ensured among the youths in a beer palour, which later resulted into fracas but that the chairman of the local government council, Hon. Raymond Nwokocha and the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the Okwuzi Divisional Police Headquarters were alerted and that they personaly  intervened and calmed the situation.

Eze Ogor further explained that though, a section of the youths resurfaced the following day, Saturday June 5, with the intention to cause  mayhem, the proactive measure put in place and the constant patrol of security agents deployed to the community by the chairman prompted the incident.

The paramount ruler,    who disclaimed one Donatus Nwokotubo who purportedly  spoke to the reporter, as a traditional chief, also stated that available record before the community and the Police show that no one lost his/her life or even sustained any injuries in the fracas even as he said the leadership of the community had made its preliminary report to the security agency.

The traditional ruler, who is also the custodian of peace, security and lives in the community challenged the newspaper collaborators to come up with the identities of those they claimed to have died in the crisis of tender unreserved apologies to the community, as the publication showed the community and its leadership in bad light, warning that failure to do so, the community would go to the court to seek redress.

He also called on the Rivers State Commissioner of Police to compel the authors of the publication to provide the corpses of the deceased and identify their respective families or should arrest and prosecute them for false information.