Tension erupted early part of this morning along the Port Harcourt International Airport Road as thugs allegedly hired by suspected land grabbers turned on their paymasters over unpaid fees. The crisis, eyewitnesses say, was triggered after Colonel Ogwumerum Eke, Chief Mike Oyiakhira (popularly known as Edo 1), and Chima Providence Dike reportedly refused to settle the armed youths who had been mobilized to enforce their controversial claims over thousands of plots of land in the area.
The enraged thugs, in retaliation, went on a violent rampage, setting ablaze excavators, bulldozers, and other heavy-duty machines brought to the site. Residents and motorists plying the Airport Road were thrown into panic as thick smoke billowed into the air.
Community leaders in Rumuosi and surrounding settlements have once again raised alarm over the unending invasion of their ancestral lands by notorious land grabbers, warning that the situation could spiral out of control if urgent government action is not taken.
At the time of filing this report, no official statement had been issued by the Rivers State Police Command.
