IPA IJAW CENTER BAYELSA ST. UNION IJAW FOUNDATION IJAW SOLIDARITY, POWER, LIBERTY, PEACE AND PROGRESS IZON EBE SERI KENI WENIMO RESOLUTION FOR A BILL FOR THE CREATION OF BENI-EBE, TORU-EBE, KENGEMA AND ABAJI STATES AND THE CREATION OF THIRTY-THREE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS FOR BAYELSA STATE. Resolution 001-08 Preamble We, the Ijaw (Ijo, Izon) inhabiting the Niger Delta and coastal regions of Nigeria, stretching from Apoi/Arogbo in Lagos State in the West to Ibeno on the banks of the Qua Iboe River in Akwa Ibom State in the East of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in territories herein stated as follows: The territories of the indigenous Ijaw communities from the Apoi and Arogbo clans in Lagos State ; The territories of the indigenous Ijaw communities from the Apoi and Arogbo clans in Ondo State ; The territories of the indigenous Egbema, Olodiama, Furupagha and Okomu clans in Edo State ; The territories of the indigenous people of Patani LGA, Bomadi LGA, Burutu LGA, Warri-South LGA and Warri-North LGA, comprising the Gbaramatu, Iduwini, Isaba, Kabo, Kumbo, Mein, Ogulagha, Obotebe, Ogbe-Ijo, Seimbiri and Tuomo clans in Delta State; The territories of the indigenous people of Brass LGA, Nembe LGA, Ogbia LGA, Southern Ijaw LGA, Yenagoa LGA, Kolokuma-Opokuma LGA, Sagbama LGA and Ekeremor LGA, comprising the Akassa, Apoi, Beni-Oyiakiri, Bassan, Bomo, Buseni, Ekpetiama, Epie-Atissa, Gbaran, Iduwini, Kabo, Kolokuma, Kumbo, Mein, Ogbia, Ogboin, Okordia, Olodiama, Operemo, Oporoma, Opokuma, Nembe, Tarakiri, Tungbo and Zarama clans in Bayelsa State ; The territories of the indigenous people of Opobo- Nkoro Local Government Area (LGA), Andoni LGA, Eastern Obolo LGA, Ibeno LGA, Bonny LGA, Okrika LGA, Ogu/Bolo LGA, Port Harcourt, Degema LGA, Asari-Toru LGA, Akuku-Toru LGA, and residual populations in Abua-Odual LGA and Ahoada West LGA, comprising the Andoni, Ibani, Kalabari, Ke, Kula-Bille, Nkoro, Okrika, Opobo, Abua, Odual and Engenni clans in Rivers State ; and The territories of the indigenous Ijaw communities from Andoni (Eastern Obolo) and Ibeno clans in Akwa-Ibom State ; are the aboriginal inhabitants of the Niger Delta and coastal regions of present day Nigeria. During Our long habitation of the Niger Delta and coastal environs, there has not been a time prior to colonisation by the British, that the Ijaws have been under the rulership or administrative governorship of any outside power, be it indigenous to present day Nigeria or foreign. And therefore, on the grounds of Population, Geographical Contiguity, Peculiar Environment and Unique Topography, Administrative Convenience, Self Development, Social and Political Justice & Equity, True Federalism and Self-determination, WE state and demand as follows: WHEREAS The various Nigerian censuses ATTRIBUTE to the Ijaw People the fourth (4 th ) largest Ethnic Nationality in Nigeria, stretching in a homogenous continuum of densely populated communities and extensive expanse of complex terrain of domestic land with surrounding rivers, seas and mangrove forests with marshy deltaic soil from East to West; and WHEREAS the 1967 originally created single East Central State of the Igbo Ethnic Nationality has been divided into Abia, Ebonyi, Imo, Anambra and Enugu States, the Western State of the Yoruba Ethnic Nationality, into Ondo, Lagos, Ekiti, Osun, Oyo and Ogun States, while the Northern State of the Hausa-Fulani has been divided into Sokoto, Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Kaduna, Zamfara, Adamawa, Kogi, Yobe, Taraba, Bornu, Bauchi, Gombe, Kebbi and Nassarawa States but the Ijaw, the fourth largest in population with the most difficult terrain for development and yet providing the sweet crude, which is the mainstay of the economy of Nigeria, is marginalized, fragmented, disempowered and subjugated in seven states , with Bayelsa State being the ONLY homogenous Ijaw State; and WHEREAS we the IJAW ABORIGINES of the Niger Delta are amongst the first settlers in the entire territory now known as “NIGERIA” and are one of the four largest ethnic nationalities in the Nigerian Federation with a population of more than 14 million people according to the Provisional Census Figures of 1991; and WHEREAS our sovereignty and territorial integrity as a distinct and separate nation occupying the entire length and breadth of the Niger Delta was at no time threatened or brought under the occupation and control of any alien nationality in the West African sub-region before the arrival of the Portuguese in 1470 and that of the British in 1750; and WHEREAS it was only by Treaties of Friendship, Trade and Protection signed between us, the IJAWS and the BRITISH GOVERNMENT (the first of which Treaties was signed on the 25 th of January 1836 at Bonny with Lieutenant Robert Tryon on behalf of His Majesty King William IV of Great Britain) that our aboriginal territory of the Niger Delta became a British Protectorate and was proclaimed "Oil Rivers Protectorate" in 1885 and the "Niger Coast Protectorate ” in 1893; and WHEREAS it was British Colonisation enforced with the taking over of the Royal Niger Company in 1900, and which company had in 1886 been granted a Mandate by the British Government to administer, make treaties, levy customs and trade in the basin of the Niger Delta and its effluents that the IJAW NATION was forcibly conscripted as a constituent part of the present Nigerian Federation and partitioned into its administrative divisions when the "Niger Coast Protectorate" was proclaimed the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria under Sir Ralph Moor as High Commissioner; and WHEREAS the area now known as "NIGERIA” was never at any given time a single country before the 1 st of January 1914; being hitherto inhabited by a number of different nationalities, many of which were highly organised kingdoms before they were forcibly amalgamated to form the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria in 1914 under Sir (later Lord) Frederick Lugard as Governor; and WHEREAS the IJAW NATION could have long ago evolved as a distinct and separate sovereign nation outside the administrative Provinces created by the British in Nigeria between 1900 and 1939 to have maintained the political, economic, social and cultural AUTONOMY it is now demanding, and which status was recognised by the Treaties of Friendship and Trade signed with the British Government and the Resolutions of the Conference of the Liverpool Chambers of Commerce in 1890, but for the British Government’s forcible annexation of the Ijaw Niger Delta territory in 1914 with the rest of what is now known as “NIGERIA”, and by virtue of the Treaty obligations of the British to the Ijaw people even at the time of granting political independence to the territories constituting its recognised Nigeria in 1960; and WHEREAS the IJAW NATION protested to the British Government against this forcible annexation in the amalgamated territories in Nigeria and the subsequent partitioning of the Ijaws into the Western and Eastern Provinces at the splitting of the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria on the 1 st of April 1939; and WHEREAS for the purposes of administration, the following Ijaw Native Authorities were established under the Native Authority Ordinance of 1943 and with the creation of the Rivers Province, we had: In the ONDO PROVINCE, the Ijaw-Apoi District Native Authority and the Arogbo District Native Authority for the IJAWS in the western fringe; In the WARRI (DELTA) PROVINCE, the Warri Township Authority, Western Ijaw Central Native Authority – Benni Native Authority, Iduwini Native Authority, Oporoza (Kabo & Kumbo) Native Authority, Mein Native Authority, Ogula Native Authority, Oporoma Native Authority, Seimbiri Native Authority, Tarakiri Native Authority and Tuomo Clan Native Authority for the WESTERN IJAWS; In the RIVERS PROVINCE, Eastern Ijaw Central Native Authority, Akassa Native Authority, Apoi Native Authority, Bassan Native Authority, Bomou Native Authority, Ekpetiama Native Authority, Gbaran Native Authority, Kolokuma Native Authority, Ogboin Native Authority, Okordia-Buseni Native Authority, Zarama Native Authority, Opokuma Native Authority, Oporoma Native Authority, Tarakiri Native Authority, Tungbo Native Authority, Epie-Atissa Native Authority, Nembe Native Authority, Ogbeyan (Ogbia) Native Authority, Ayama Native Authority, Emeya Native Authority, Oloibiri Native Authority, Bonny Native Authority, Kalabari Native Authority, Odual (Saka) Native Authority and Okrika Native Authority for the CENTRAL AND EASTERN IJAWS; and In the CALABAR PROVINCE, the Opobo Town Native Authority and Andoni Native Authority for the IJAWS in the eastern fringe; and WHEREAS these Native Authorities fell into the Eastern and Western Regions when they were created in August 1946 without genuinely consulting any of the peoples; and WHEREAS we have since then been dehumanised and made to suffer abject and utter neglect, oppression and marginalisation in the hands of the other major groups in full control of the m
Posted on: Wed, 28 Aug 2013 08:37:17 +0000
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