OKOWA SETS ENQUIRY INTO OKPE – URHOBO FOREST RESERVES DISPUTE

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has inaugurated a seven-man Judicial Panel of Enquiry to establish the ownership of Okpe-Urhobo Forest Reserves, especially the purported de-reserved area.

At the ceremony at Government House, Asaba, the Governor said the panel would establish the status of the forest reserve which had generated tension between the Itsekiri and Urhobo host communities.

Okowa stated that the enquiry was to prevent the situation from escalating into a full blown conflict and urged the panel to receive presentations from all parties involved and dispassionately investigate the existing legal instruments – Gazettes, Survey Maps, Documents and others – relating to the real estate.

He said peace building was a major pillar of the S.M.A.R.T agenda of his administration’s first tenure which metamorphosed into the Stronger Delta mantra, standing on the tripod of Prosperity, Peace and Progress, stressing that the vision would remain cardinal in the remaining part of his second tenure.

The Governor said the Panel, with Justice Tessy Diai as Chairman, would, identify and locate boundaries of the Okpe-Urhobo (Ukpe-Sobo) Forest Reserve and determine whether or not the size of the reserve was at any time altered by any existing or defunct instrument of government.

It would also establish the existence or otherwise of any instrument of Delta State Government that de-reserved portion(s) of the Okpe-Urhobo (Ukpe-Sobo) Forest Reserve in favour of any beneficiary and the size and extent of such de-reserved portion, as well as identify the immediate and remote causes of encroachment on any portion of the said Forest Reserve and the extent of such encroachment and make appropriate recommendations to the government.

Okowa said the panel, which has persons with unblemished character, unassailable integrity, vast knowledge and experience in the public service and without vested interests in the dispute as members should turn in its report in four weeks time.

He urged the panel to adjudicate the matter with fairness, equity and justice.

Responding on behalf of the panel, the Chairman, Justice Tessy Diai, thanked the Governor for the confidence reposed in the members and promised that the enquiry would be thorough, without fear or favour.

Members of the panel are Professor Abednego Ekoko, Sir Okey Ofili, Mr Okeoghene Osiawa, ACP Dashuwar Abuja (Representing the Commissioner of Police), Mr Weng Chollom (Representing the Director, Department of State Service) and Mr Jerome Morka, who will serve as Secretary.