The Igba of Warri, Chief Rita Lori Ogbebor, has called on President Bola Tinubu to take urgent steps to halt the ongoing crisis in Warri, between the Itsekiris on one hand and the Urhobo and Ijaw on the hand to prevent a full blown war that could lead to the wiping away of Itsekiri sons and daughters from their ancestral homes.

Speaking on Friday in Lagos, Ogbebor insisted that if nothing is done to ensure that justice prevails, the crisis might snowball into a repeat of the 1997 crisis that led to the death of many Itsekiri sons and daughters in Warri.

She maintained that it is a serious problem that requires urgent attention and solution by all stakeholders, especially
the Federal Government and the United Nations.

“Genocide is a problem that politicians have generated, and it is destroying our land. They find it easy to destroy, and they want to do the same thing in Delta State, the economic hub of the country.

“We all know the problems of the Urhobo, Ijaw, and Itsekiri in Warri. It is a long-time issue, but politicians have added their own ambition to it.

Warri is the economic hub of Delta State. It is a place where everybody can settle because the Itsekiri are very liberal,” she said.

Ogbebor said she was raising the alarm to the whole world, the President of Nigeria and Nigerians to know that the Itsekiri are being battered.

She added: “There is a limit to everything in life. We have been suffering. Everybody knows how much they are fighting. But for two people to come together and announce to the whole world that they are together to fight the Itsekiri, I think it is a shame. I am calling on the Nigerian government to give us protection.

“Give us a state or give us the kind of protection that will keep us from being wiped out. Give us the protection that will prevent us from being wiped out by the two tribes. That is the major reason that I have come to tell the whole world that there is a looming genocide against the Itsekiri.”

She demanded for the creation of Warri State. “it is very possible. Warri meets the conditions required for state creation. There are a lot of smaller nations in the world, smaller than Itsekiri, but they are sovereign nations. The most important thing is that we must be able to look after ourselves. And Warri is viable,” she noted.

Ogbebor also stated that the judgment that says everybody in Warri except the Itsekiri is a settler should be implemented and enforced.

“If you are not an Itsekiri man, you are a settler. In 1997, our local government was taken from where the government had earmarked it to Ogbe Ijaw. We want it to be taken back. That is one aspect. The other aspect is that there was a judgment given in Okere, and that judgment gave Urhobo over 200 acres of land. They do not have more than that, but they have gone beyond that. They must go back to what the judgment said.”