JONATHAN WANTS TO ELIMINATE ITSEKIRI Itsekiri leaders accuse Jonathan of pursuing Ijaw agenda font size decrease font size increase font size Print Email |15.Nov.2014 |DISQUS_COMMENTS |Ebenezer Adurokiya - Warri Rate this item 12345(1 Vote) The Itsekiri Leaders of Thought has accused President Goodluck Jonathan of pursuing an Ijaw agenda to exterminate the Itsekiri. The leaders said if the president did not drop the idea, the Itsekiri nation would request secession from the United Nations, United States and United Kingdom in due course. The allegation and threat were made at a press conference, on Friday, in Warri, Delta State. Chairman of the leaders, Pa J. O. S. Ayomike, an octogenarian, flanked by Chief (Mrs) Florence Rewane, while reacting to the Ijaw of Gbaramatu’s claim of ownership of the land where the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) project is sited, said the refusal of President Jonathan to perform the groundbreaking ceremony of the project on Friday was a show of cowardice unexpected of a president who should stand for the rule of law. Ayomike said various court injunctions, which documents he displayed before journalists, were available to prove Itsekiri’s ownership of the land. He observed that the president had begun to execute an Ijaw agenda mapped out to “exterminate the Itsekiri in their God-given land.” Secretary of the group, Mr Edward Ekpoko, who also addressed the press, said the Itsekiri would resist the agenda and “will never be intimidated by threats of war and genocide against the Itsekiri.” While reeling out court injunctions of centuries and decades that confirmed the Itsekiri as owners and the Ijaw as customary tenants of Ogidigben (measuring 2,560 hectares of land), Kpopko, as well as other Ijaw creeks, Ekpoko said the call on Jonathan and his Ijaw brothers to build bridges across ethnic divides in the Niger Delta and the entire country had fallen on deaf ears. He said President Jonathan’s refusal to honour the groundbreaking ceremony showed that he had “joined the Ijaw militants in building fences among the ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta and Nigeria.” Reiterating his anger at the claim of the Ijaw and the president’s refusal to honour the groundbreaking ceremony, Pa Ayomike said Jonathan’s action portrayed his disregard for the rule of law, adding that since he could no longer guarantee the interest of the Itsekiri, his position as president was of no significance. “Jonathan should know that the Itsekiri the world over will go to the United Nations to request for secession. If Jonathan and the Ijaw want to pursue the extermination of the Itsekiri, we will ask for the protection of Britain and America and the United Nations. “We call on all Nigerians minus Ijaws and Jonathan that we will not allow our people to be exterminated. We want to be independent. We won’t allow them to exterminate us. We warn Jonathan and his militants to leave us alone. We are saying enough is enough!” Ayomike warned. He also took a swipe at the governor of Delta State, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, saying his boast that no one could stop the president from performing the groundbreaking ceremony on Friday, had come to naught. “Jonathan has been intimidated by the militants, and the Ijaw have grown in fame and importance, so, they can control everything, including the president of Nigeria,” he noted. The Ijaw of Gbaramatu had, at a world press conference in Oporoza, headquarters of Gbaramatu kingdom, threatened to disrupt the groundbreaking ceremony of the EPZ project billed for Friday. The aggrieved Ijaw had waned that except pending issues of land ownership as regards the EPZ project were resolved, the project would be a mirage. They demanded, among other things, that the EPZ project named after Ogidigben in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State be reverted to bear EPZ Gbaramatu-Ogidigben or Gibagu or any other suitable name that would reflect their interest and ownership.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 19:57:05 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015