Photo: Alleged ‘King of kidnappers’: Kokori women in nude march for Kelvin

EVOCATIVE of the “Aba Women’s riots of 1929” in which thousands of women in the then provinces of Calabar and Owerri organized a massive revolution against the policies of the British colonial administrators, hundreds of women from Kokori in Ethiope-East Local Government Area of Delta State, joined by youths, last week, carried out a civil disobedience against government, soldiers on “internal security operation” in the troubled area, their monarch and notable elite.

Kokori is the country home of Delta suspected kidnap kingpin, Kelvin Oniarah, arrested September 25, by a combined team of Department of State Service, DSS, and the army, while staying in an hotel in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State.

Like the Aba riots in which thousands of Igbo women congregated at the Native Administration centers in Calabar and Owerri as well as smaller towns to protest against the warrant chiefs and the taxes on the market women, Kokori women  protested nude (Eweya) , last weekend,  demanding the...
withdrawal of soldiers on “internal security operation” from the community.
The women, angry that they were prevented from selling in the market, penultimate Saturday, by soldiers who upturned their wares for allegedly selling food items to the boys causing problem for the government, were further infuriated by the report they received when they got home that soldiers broke into the community shrine for the second time and destroyed every object at sight even after the chief priest, Michael Omonigho, had been taken into custody.

Citing the  schools in the community, health centre and markets that had been forced to shut down because of the siege to the town by soldiers, who accused of  beating up their men, they embarked on a protest, and, stunningly, they prevented soldiers from entering the town for several hours on Monday.

Accusing the soldiers of chasing away their husbands and desecrating their custom and tradition, the women, acting on unconfirmed information that soldiers wanted to demolish the Igban shrine, formed a human shield around the shrine and prevented them from purportedly executing the mission.

Culled - Vanguard

Share your thoughts...thanks!