Ijaw to FG: Withdraw troops from Niger Delta
• Why we shunned Ogoni flag-off
• Militants attack forcados pipeline, warn Agip
Ijaw leaders from the 78 Ijaw clans, traditional institutions and socio-political bodies from Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, Edo, Akwa Ibom, Ondo and Delta states met yesterday in Warri for several hours over the renewed violence in the Niger Delta region, especially the destruction of critical infrastructure by the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA).
Many women and children from several Ijaw communities in Gbaramatu Kingdom, who escaped the onslaught by soldiers, narrated their ordeals in the hands of the troops at the meeting.
The meeting convened by the Ijaw National Congress (INC) exposed the dire humanitarian crisis in several Ijaw communities of Oporoza; Kunukunu-Amu; Okokodiagbene; Benikruku; Kurutie; Okerekolo; Naifor; Azakrama; Kenghangbene; Igoba and several others.
Several Ijaw leaders who spoke at the ceremony include INC Secretary, Dr. Bibobra Bello Orubebe, who said: “As we speak, several Ijaw people cannot be accounted for and their whereabouts, including status as to whether they are alive or dead, cannot be ascertained.
“Our people are starving and being molested without recourse to minimum international human rights standards in law enforcement.
“Ijaw children who went to write NECO are stranded and several of our people are in the forest and the wounded unattended.
“The situation is dire.”
The INC condemned the “use of violence by both civilians and the federal government” and urged parties to the crisis to respect the sanctity of human lives, livelihood, economy, culture and environment of Ijaw people.
The INC explained that they shunned the invitation to the flag-off of the UNEP clean-up ceremony at Ogoni, Rivers State on Thursday because the government cannot be killing Ijaw people with soldiers and still expect them to honour the invitation.
The INC secretary told the Buhari government: “You cannot kill the Ijaw people and rule successfully. We are asking the military to open the waterways for the people to move freely.
“We are appealing to the federal government to order all the soldiers that have occupied several Ijaw communities to leave, because we are not pipeline vandals and members of the Niger Delta Avengers do not live in these villages.
“The Ijaw indicated interest to work with the Buhari government after he was sworn in; we sent representation to the government showing our intention to work with them, but till date, they have not reached out to us.
“The INC welcomes the clean up of Ogoni, based on the UNEP report. We boycotted the ceremony because you cannot be killing Ijaw people and expect us to attend.”
Orubebe urged the National Emergency management Agency (NEMA) and other humanitarian organisations to send relief materials to the suffering displaced people.
The Chairman of Kokodiagbene community, Sheriff Mulade, who was at the meeting, said the suffering in Gbaramatu communities are enormous.
“Many of the women and children ran into the swamps when the soldiers arrived. As we speak, many of them have not been rescued, because the soldiers have barred all boats from entering and leaving the communities.
“It is a pathetic situation and we are urging the soldiers to allow aides to be delivered to them, because many of them have been in the swamps since a week ago without food.”
Also, Hendrix Opukeme, another Ijaw leader, said the Ijaw are peaceful people and do not want escalation of the crisis and appealled to the Buhari government to withdraw the troops to avert further suffering of the displaced people.
A woman, who gave her name as Angela Temowei, said she was forced to flee Oporoza with her two children when the soldiers started shooting indiscriminately.
Temowei added that she has not set eyes on her husband and his aged mother, saying several people were still hiding in the swamps, because there was no way they could escape.
She said she was lucky to make it to Warri, because she left when the first batch of soldiers arrived.
Another displaced person, Lepe Kenekuma, said: “I hid in the roof of a house for two days before I decided to swim to back of Oporoza, where I paddled a canoe to a location, where I was rescued by a boat operator.”
He said the military had shut down the waterways and barred boats from reaching displaced people.
Kenekuma urged Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to assist his distressed citizens.
Meanwhile, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) yesterday bombed the 48-inch Forcados export pipeline at Forcados export terminal.
The militants had earlier destroyed the pipeline, but government commenced its repair, despite their warning to stop.
On its Twitter handle yesterday the Avengers warned Agip oil firm, saying: “We are sending this warning message to #AGIP not to commence repair works on any of the blown pipelines in Bayelsa.
“We will make you regret it if you even dare us,” its spokesman, Mudoch Aginibo, wrote.
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11 Comments
When you bomb your own home, its an invitation to make your own families a target practice. So let the practice begin and we’ll see who will tire out. Continue the bombing and the Nigeria Army under Buratai makes you all a target practice. Don’t leave your homes o, please. What imbeciles and lazy people. After all the billions spent on amnesty programmes and monies stolen during GEJ reign in the name of ‘its our oil’, you think paying Nigeria back is with bombings. So let the bombing start.
I am shocked at your comments, do you know the enormity of their crisis? What stupid monies were spent or stolen? If the oil was cited in Northern Nigeria or West, no one would have access to it, no one!
Unfortunately, I am not from the Niger Delta but I believe in fair play!
The presence of the natural resources and it’s harnessing makes their land unsuitable for agricultural practices, which in my view, spending any amount of money is more of a fair compensation.
I believe that they should ask their people to spare the pipelines and oil blocks owned by the Northern and Western “elites”…so that the general country can benefit of what is left! Those boys are simply agitated by the gross neglect of their cries and situation. Mr President and your likes Kenny should read in between the lines brov!
Do think again before writing!
Nemesis has a funny way of manifesting. i can assure you that all of you tribal bigots who are happy and rejoicing at the ethnic cleansing and killing of innocent women and children in ijaw-land under any guise by the Nigerian army will all meet equal violent deaths in your families.
I am not ijaw and i equally know that all the ethnic bigots rejoicing, urging the killings on and making senseless remarks are just low-lives and cowards filled with hatred along ethnic line, but my message to you is that the FRAUD CALLED NIGERIA MUST BE RESTRUCTURED AND TRUE FEDERALISM/RESOURCE CONTROL EMBRACED FOR US TO MOVE FORWARD. I BELIEVE ONLY IN ONE NIGERIA WITH EQUITY AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL, NOT THIS FRauD
Nigeria has always been in a state where some set of people work so hard to earn living and also contribute to National growth while another smaller cliques have made Government their sole business and “cash cow” – contributing nothing to economic growth but cornering 95% of our collective resources to themselves. Most people in the Government are among this clique and while being the real looters of the nation are calling “mere petty” thieves the looters. This is unacceptable.
Is the home of Awusas, Fulani Tauregs, and Yorubandits.
In as much as I am in support of peaceful solution to the problem in the Niger Delta I expect the Ijaw Leaders to direct their appeal to their Sons (the boys the Militants the NDA ) to withdraw their hostilities against the economic monuments of Nigeria. Their appeal to the FG to withdraw Troops from their Area is biased and one-sided. If the Leaders are sincere and in support of oneness and want indivisible Nigeria they should ask the NDA to embrace peace and tranquillity in the Niger Delta.
So if you acknowledge that the area call Niger Delta hold the economic monument of Nigeria, what have they to show for it in terms of development and what steps has governments since 1958 made to make the area habitable ?
Don’t mind the man with forked tongue or shall I say forked pen. When Abiola’s mandate was desecrated, they used every tool available to them to make Nigeria ungovernable until they were placated. He does not feel the pain of others who have been wronged by the Nigerian state for so long because it does not concern him or his people. My people say ‘when the corpse of another man is being carried, it may appear like a log of wood to a stranger’.
Yorubandits are addicted to Fela’s Dependency Theory of Monkey De work Baboon De Chop.
Where are these elders when IPOB and MASSOB turned their villages and towns to bombing targets? I read all the states under the aegis of ND Elders but did not see any IPOB states but they are reported to be part of NDA. When NDA was bombing the oil facilities, these elders were quiet or too afraid to speak out an indication that they could not control their wads or the strangers according to their statements above. The same elders were invited for Ogoni clean up, they declined because someone is killing their people. Did the army started the killings or NDA? What actions did these elders took when NDA was bombing the area? What are their priorities? Odua adage said that; when you turn your dishes to dust pan, everyone will help you use it to pick up trash. The elder’s silence indicated that the action of NDA was okay and now that the government want peace they are complaining? Their actions or lack of it clearly show the side they align with and they cannot have their cake and……. During any war, some innocent people will be inconvenienced and some will lose their life – I believed that this statement was written in some of those religious text that Nigerian like to read but never practice what they read.
I said it that they should ALLOW NIGER DELTA TO EXHAUST THEIR TENUE COMPLETELY AND THEY WILL HAVE NO EXCUSE AGAIN TO DISTURB NIGERIA. But some people thought that they were smart and that they must get power, power power. Now you have power but is it sweet? When everyday is trouble – why not understand FAIRNESS?
FG to Ijaws – Stop lunatic bombing of the pipelines.
We will review and take appropriate action.