Date Published: 05/12/09

Ijaw leaders raise fresh alarm on militancy, violent agitations

 * Insist on creation of Toru-Ebe State

LEADERS of the Ijaw people inhabiting the swampy terrain of the Niger Delta, have warned that the current spate of militancy and violent agitations in the volatile oil and gas region will soon escalate if the Federal Government fails to yield to on-going pressure by some ethnic nationalities in the coastal areas for self-determination.

The Ijaw leaders who are pressing the President Umaru Yar'Adua administration, for the creation of Toru-Ebe State for their kinsmen out of the present Delta, Edo, and Ondo states, rose from a meeting at the weekend in Patani, Delta State, claiming that their quest for self-determination pre-dates the discovery of oil in commercial quantity in 1956 and Nigeria's independence on October 1, 1960.

Chairman of the Toru-Ebe State Movement, Chief Joseph Oyakeme-Agbegha, told a gathering of about 2,000 Ijaw people at the Patani meeting that what is generally referred to as the Niger Delta crisis ''is the struggle of our people and other ethnic groups who occupy the swampy areas of the Nigerian coast''.

According to him, ''the problem in this area of Nigeria pre-dates the discovery of oil and our country's independence. You all know that after the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates in 1914, three regions: Northern, Western and Eastern, were created without a Southern region for us. Instead of doing the right thing, they opted to balkanise us into Western and Eastern regions, thus making us minorities in the two defunct regions

''Since 1946, we have been agitating to be brought together. But instead of yielding to our just demand, successive administrations in the country have continued to balkanise us. At the moment, we are in six states, save for Bayelsa State which the late General Sani Abacha regime created for us in 1996. We have been rendered minorities in Delta, Edo, Ondo, Rivers, and Akwa Ibom states''.

The Ijaw leaders at the Patani meeting explained the proposed Toru-Ebe state is for the entire Ijaw people of Bomadi, Burutu, Patani, Warri North, Warri South, and Warri South-West Local Government Areas of Delta state, those of Ovia North-East, Ovia South-West, and Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Areas of Edo state as well as their kinsmen in Es-Odo and Odigbo Local Government Areas in Ondo state.

They are also claiming that the current wave of insecurity in the oil and gas region occasioned by militancy and other forms of violent agitations are largely due to the balkanisation and neglect of the Ijaw people.

''Militancy and all the other forms of violent agitations in the Niger Delta today, are largely as a result of continued balkanisation, and neglect of our people'', the Ijaw leaders said, adding that the current phase of militancy by their armed youths is a form of protest action against ''continued environmental degradations, economic exploitation and political domination'' by the larger ethnic groups who allegedly hold sway in states the Ijaw are balkanised

According to them, ''in our view, the only way to prevent acts of militancy and violent agitations from escalating, is for government to create Toru-Ebe state for us. The demand for this state is not new.It was among the three homogeneous states we demanded alongside Bayelsa and Oil River''.

Our correspondent who was at the Patani meeting reports that some of the prominent Ijaw leaders who were there include Chief Edwin Clark, High Chief F. J. Williams, Head of the Porbeni House, Chief Edwin O. Porbeni, former member of the defunct Bendel State House of Assembly, Prince O. Johnny, Chief Chamberlain Abeki, Elder Markson B. Mieyebo, Evangelist Nathaniel O. Ege, Secretary of the Toru-Ebe State Movement, Okokolo Carter, and his deputy, Mr. Robinson Uroupa.

The other Ijaw leaders who sent in messages of solidarity were former Ijaw National Congress (INC) President, Chief Joshua Fumudoh,  retired Brig-Gen Broderick Demeyeibo, retired Lt. Col Edwin Agbegba, Chief Benson Egbele, Dr. Felix Tuodolo, Dennis Seikepagha, and Elder Tuodolor R. Pere.