WARRI CRISIS: HOW NOT TO PRETEND TO BE CONCERNED AS GOVERNOR
-By Zik Gbemre
After categorically declaring "People say I should talk, I will not talk" against sincere public appeal for him to take decisive actions to thwart another escalating Warri crisis, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori few days ago appeared to have reversed self.
The Governor talked on Warri crisis at last, but did in pretense, vindicating us yet again that Oborevwori is playing politics with the Warri crisis and the threat it poses to lives in the Oil City.
He chose a DSS hyped seizure, in Asaba, Delta state, of a cache of arms allegedly imported by yet faceless persons to fight the Warri crisis.
Apparently resolute on his "I will not talk" over the Warri crisis, Oborevwori had before now remained unfeeling, insensitive to the grieving family and the Odion Urhobo community when Jerry Aduara, Warri South Local Government Peace Committee member, was shot dead by suspected Itsekiri youths in Iyara 27th September,2025.
It took Oborevwori 17 days after that gruesome murder before ordering Police to fish out the killers. How pretentious? And he did so at the DSS overdramatized Asaba public display of illegally imported guns said to have been seized from a supplier claimed to be delivering them for Warri crisis.
Between the Governor and the DSS, the collaborative sensationalization of the arms discovery has left the concerned public wondering if the drama was primarily for self glorification than genuine commitment to stopping the Warri crisis.
These were arms procurement to fight Warri crisis that have been preempted for months in the public domain, some said to have been bursted in Lagos. Why celebrate the seizure as if it marks the end of the summering crisis? Were the guns the DSS seized in Asaba the ones used by the bloodsuckers in killing Jerry in Warri?
Why delight in so much self glorification for nothing over a critical situation as if without the guns seized there are no more guns in Warri? Let's not deceive ourselves. If indeed the guns seized at Asaba were meant for Warri crisis, the seizure only compromises the intended advantage they would have given those who ordered them if the fighting breaks in Warri.
Without those arms, anyone familiar with the terrain knows the war merchants instigating another Warri crisis still have guns in their armoury. Even when government orders disarmament or arms mop up in the Oil City, it does so with so much selective appeal that while some neighborhoods are bursted to remove guns, in other quarters the bearer are left to even stockpile more.
Beyond the realities, the whole drama of the seizure of illegal arms meant to fight Warri crisis is too laughable, too superficial for the Governor and the DSS to blow it out of proportion. To do it in restricted disclosures even exposes it as a script intentionally designed to give false impression of government's dedication to duty that is not there.
What are we even talking about? So the DSS caught an illegal arms importer, Stephen Sabo Atoshi who happens to be a school teacher in Taraba state. Save for giving out his name, the suspect is not seen paraded with guns he allegedly admitted importing from Libya to fight Warri ethnic crisis.
According to the Deputy Director of Operations, DSS, Delta State Command, Mr. Anthony Ifemeje, items recovered included seven GPMGs, several AK-47 rifles, five hand grenades, and other military grade weapons, some concealed in bags of beans transported from the North to the Oko Food Market along the Asaba-Onitsha Expressway.
Then the DSS Spokesperson who directs operations, closes with assurance of the Command’s continuous vigilance and determination to cut off arms supply routes and dismantle criminal networks operating in Delta.
Imagine such close ended remark, on such a critical operation, like the matter ends just like that. This was a suspect who gave you all the confessions. He admitted being engaged to bring in the guns, discloses the destination, Warri, where he was to deliver the guns.
So why wouldn't the DSS disclose who in Warri ordered the guns? Even if he is yet to give the exact identity, the suspect would have a clue as to who the purchaser was. Who engaged him? Nothing is said of efforts being made to track those in Warri the guns were bought for.
What does the Governor and the DSS take Deltans, indeed Warri people for? Morons? Of course, they have a right to glorify selves, play to the gallery and tell the gullible majority what they want to hear.
But on this Warri crisis, we only take Governor Oborevwori serious on his originally declared mindset when he bragged, "I will not talk". Far as the NDPC is concerned, Oborevwori doesn't care about Warri crisis.
All he cares is his second term. He never cared about the murder of Jerry. No governor who cares would wait more than two weeks to order police investigation on such a pathetic murder over ethnic tensions.
For us, his hypocritical grandstanding over of a hyped DSS discovery of illegal arms to fight Warri crisis is not how to pretend to be concerned as a Governor.
Zik Gbemre
October 15,2025
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