The Ijaw language speaking ethnic group in Edo State has demanded for the recognition of their kingdoms or be allowed to “join their kits and kins in Delta and Ondo states through boundary adjustments.

The Ijaw speaking people comprising Furupagha, Egbema, Okomu, Gbaran and Olodiama kingdoms also demanded the creation of three indigenous Ijaw Local Government Development Areas in the state.

Their demands followed the age-long crisis between them and the Benins and particularly the recent dispute between the two ethnic groups wherein the Ijaw were repeatedly called tenants, slaves, captives, settlers, strangers, etc.

Addressing journalists during a press conference in Okoro community, Olodiama kingdom, High Chief Robinson Ogunkoruwei, reading a statement endorsed by representatives of the five kingdoms, said since the Edo State Government has refused to give the Ijaw speaking people a distinctive recognition, joining them with their kinsmen in Ondo and Delta states through boundary adjustment would afford them “better assimilation and development,” stressing that this is also necessary in order to “avoid the persistent crisis between the Binis and Ijaws.”

The strong-worded statement read by Ogunkoruwei was signed by Elder Edmund Douyah Tiemo, President, Ijaws of Edo State &
Chairman, Egbema Leaders of Thought, High Chief Daniel Agagha, Egbema Kingdom; Chief Edwin Deinmene, Okomu kingdom; High Chief B. A. Amiyenkumor, Gbaran kingdom; Chief Ben Bowei, Furupagha kingdom; Engr. Pius Donyegha, Olodiama kingdom; Dr Freedom Atigbi, youth leader and immediate past Deputy National President, Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), among others.

The Ijaw, while lamenting that they have been for too long “subjected to untold inhuman treatment by our neighbours, the Bini people,” accused the current and past government of Edo State of aiding the inhumane treatment.

“They have Balkanized the Ijaws into several Local Government Administrative Areas in order to deny them a collective political voice; they have made several attempts to annex and rename our God-given Communities,” they said.

They said: “For far too long, the five Ijaw Kingdoms in Edo State have been subjected to untold inhuman treatment by our neighbours, the Bini people, who are being aided and abetted by the Government of Edo State.

“The Edo State Government has persistently failed to be a Government (a protective umbrella) for all citizens of the State, but instead elected to be tied to the apron strings of the Oba of Bini’s Palace making it the de facto government.

“The Oba of Benin and his subjects continuously provoke the Ijaws by derogatively calling them “tenants”, slaves captured in some imaginary wars and settled in Bini lands.

“Yet historical accounts are clear that; The Ijaws of Edo State are indigenous to the land.
We are living in our God given inheritance.
The Bini people met us on the land.

“The Ijaws of Edo State have no cultural or linguistic affinity with the Bini people. We have our language, our Kings (traditional Rulers) and we have never played a second fiddle by paying allegiance to a Bini Oba. We are different people from the Binis.

“This brazen oppression, name calling and dehumanization cannot continue forever; it must stop now. We need our freedom, our peace to live in our God given land.”

They, therefore, demanded: “The immediate recognition of the five traditional rulers of the Ijaw Kingdoms comprising, Egbema, Olodiama, Okomu, Furupagha and Gbaran, and presentation of Staff of Office to all of them.”

However reacting to the allegations via the telephone, Edo State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Prince Kassim Afegbua, denied the government aiding the Benin people to marginalising the Ijaw, insisting that Governor Monday Okpebholo has appointed some of them into political offices as a way of recognising them Afegbua however clarified that the government cannot grant their request for kingdoms inside the Benin kingdom.