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IJAW
FOUNDATION
A NON-PROFIT
ORGANIZATION ESTABLISHED IN 2003
September 10,
2007
PRESS RELEASE
A CALL FOR URGENT ACTION TO END THE REIGN
OF EVIL AND MAYHEM IN RIVERS STATE
We are shamed,
anguished and appalled, beyond description, at the Reign of Evil and Violence in
Rivers State; especially the extremely tragic, terrible, abominable and
protracted mayhem in Port Harcourt in August 2007, which claimed numerous
precious and innocent lives. We are very concerned about the continuing state of
hyper-insecurity with wanton bloodshed in Rivers State and want true peace to be
restored in the erstwhile tranquil state.
Sending a military
armada to various Rivers towns and villages to hunt down suspected cultists is
not the solution, particularly because numerous innocent citizens are being
killed in the process. The Niger Delta, especially Rivers State is not at war
with the Nigerian State. As such, a police operation to flush out miscreants and
criminals must not be turned into a deliberate and calculated military onslaught
to annihilate certain ethnic nationalities of Nigeria. This military persecution
can only be categorized as ethnic cleansing. When thousands of Southerners
living in the northern parts of Nigeria were slaughtered in recent years,
neither bombs nor helicopter gunships were used to kill the Hausa-Fulani and
other Northern Nigerian miscreants and criminals. During the recent mayhems in
Lagos, especially during the active period of OPC when numerous Hausa-Fulanis
and Yorubas fought and killed each other, no helicopter gunships or bombs were
employed by the Nigerian Security Forces to eliminate the miscreants and
criminals. In contradistinction, it is now the discriminatory, oppressive and
unacceptable official policy of the Nigerian government and military to use
bombs and helicopter gunships indiscriminately to kill and maim in Niger Delta
towns and villages at peacetime under a civilian government. The extrajudicial
killing of suspected miscreants without trial is an egregious violation of due
process as well as an unconscionable abuse of human rights.
To proffer an
effective solution, a proper diagnosis must be made. It is a well known fact
that the perennial Rivers State Crisis has been caused by the immediate past
governor of the state, Dr. Peter Odili who created, sponsored and operated
Killer Squads and cult groups to terrorize, maim and kill perceived political
enemies to secure his malevolent, evil, tyrannical, selfish, kleptomaniac and
destructive rule over the erstwhile tranquil Rivers State. Peter Odili’s Reign
of Terror in Rivers State caused the decimation of several Rivers State towns
and villages such as Buguma, Tombia, Okrika, Kula, Abua and Bakana as well as
the deaths of over one hundred thousand hapless Rivers State citizens including
Dr. Marshall Harry, Chief Alfred K. Dikibo and other prominent citizens of the
state.
Even Chief Rufus
Ada George, the respected and acclaimed former governor of Rivers State and
Peter Odili’s political benefactor was not spared the fangs of Peter Odili’s
Reign of Terror. He was viciously persecuted and hounded out of the state by the
evil and ungrateful Peter Odili.
Peter Odili
received more than N300 billion from the Federal Government for the
One-City-State of Rivers State from 1999 to 2007. Port Harcourt, which is the
only city in Rivers State has no electricity, no running water, no drainage
system, no functional hospitals, no functional schools and of course no
industries to employ the young, hungry and teeming youths of Rivers State.
Rather than creating meaningful and functional communities in Rivers State,
especially Port Harcourt, Peter Odili went on a looting binge as evidenced by
this report with the following URL: http://www.chatafrikarticles.com/articles/379/1/Interim-Report-of-the-EFCC-on-Governor-Peter-Odili/Page1.html
Instead of
providing meaningful jobs for the teeming youths of Rivers State, Peter Odili
turned them into armed hoodlums and cultists with monthly payments of hundreds
of millions of naira from the Rivers State government treasury to protect him
while he was the despotic governor of the State, as well as to foist his puppet,
Celestine Omehia, who was not even a candidate at the gubernatorial primaries,
to succeed him as the de facto governor of Rivers State. Celestine Omehia, as
one of the principal officers of Peter Odili’s administration and Peter Odili’s
personal confidante, is equally culpable for the terror and mayhem that Peter
Odili’s evil political machinery has visited upon Rivers State since 1999.
Being Peter
Odili’s handpicked governor who was forcefully imposed on Rivers People,
Celestine Omehia’s governorship of Rivers State is simply and truly an extension
of Peter Odili’s atrocious eight–year governorship reign over the state.
Celestine Omehia has shamelessly continued Odili’s policy of robbing the Rivers
people by expropriating the financial resources of the state through the award
of highly questionable contracts to non-indigenes thereby depriving the Rivers
people of economic empowerment and livelihood.
Peter Odili gave
the contracts for building the Rivers State House of Assembly (about N4.5
billion), the Rivers State Judiciary Complex (about N3 billion) and the
renovation of the Rivers State secretariat to one Patrick Sule Ugboma of Anambra
State, a non-indegene of Rivers State. Now, Peter Odili’s stooge, Celestine
Omehia has awarded a N7 billion contract to the same Patrick Sule Ugboma to
build a new shopping Mall in Port Harcourt. These actions of the previous and
present Rivers State Governors show their disdain for Rivers State indigenous
contractors and youths who they feel are good candidates for armed cultism and
hooliganism but not for construction contracts and jobs.
Very importantly,
it has also been established that the recent mayhem in Port Harcourt was a
ventilation of the grievances and anger of cult groups over the non-payment of
their monthly subventions by the Peter Odili/Celestine Omehia government that
had sponsored and hired them!
Furthermore, it is
now a well-known fact that some Legislators and Representatives of Rivers State
at the Federal, State and Local Levels are not only Cult Members but also
sponsors of various cults to protect them and keep them in Power.
Under these
circumstances, it is evidently clear that Dr. Peter Odili, Mr. Celestine Omehia
and some Rivers State Representatives and Legislators at the Federal, State and
Local levels constitute the principal fomenters of the current Rivers State
Crisis and mayhem. Ipso facto, the Celestine Omehia’s administration of Rivers
State has no iota of legitimacy or moral authority to resolve the Rivers State
Crisis and restore peace to the state.
Celestine Omehia’s
plan to demolish the waterfront settlements, ostensibly to rid Port Harcourt
City of cultists is dishonest, unwise, insensitive, callous and mischievous. The
plan is misguided because cultists and hoodlums exist and operate in numerous
communities in Rivers State and throughout Nigeria, and not exclusively in the
Port Harcourt City waterfront settlements. Furthermore, the demolition of the
waterfront settlements will render more than a million impoverished Rivers State
citizens homeless thereby precipitating a monumental humanitarian/refugee
crisis, which will greatly exacerbate the already terrible state of pervasive
criminal activity, insecurity and episodic mayhem.
Ijaw
Foundation, a platform for collective action by all Ijaws and all Ijaw
organizations in the Diaspora and the Ijaw homeland, hereby calls for the
immediate implementation of an urgent plan of action to end the Reign of Evil
and Mayhem in Rivers State. In this regard, Ijaw Foundation calls on the
Yar’Adua/Jonathan federal government of Nigeria to act with utmost urgency as
follows:
- Appoint
a neutral, interim, Civilian Administrator, who is a non-indigene of Rivers
State, to administer the state until peace is restored to the state and a new
governor is duly elected by means of an open, democratic, free and fair election
that is devoid of fraud, intimidation and violence.
- Establish
an independent Commission of Inquiry to find out the root causes of the Rivers
State Crisis and mayhem by identifying the members and sponsors of the rival
cult groups and killer squads in the state, particularly culpable persons
amongst the officers of the Rivers State government, Rivers State federal
legislators, members of the Rivers State House of Assembly and Rivers State
local government councilors, and prescribe punishment for culpable persons as
well as prescribe strategies to eliminate cultism and cult-related violence in
the state.
- Arrest
and prosecute Dr. Peter Odili and other former/current officers of the Rivers
State government, and Rivers State Legislators at the Federal, State and Local
levels, who are culpable for the heinous crimes against the people of Rivers
State. In addition, remove all stumbling blocks that have prevented the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from arresting and prosecuting Dr. Peter
Odili and other former/current officers of the Rivers State government who have
relegated the good people of Rivers State to agonizing poverty, destitution,
despair and anarchy through their looting of the Rivers State treasury with
unspeakable selfishness, greed, impunity, heartlessness and unbridled
passion.
- Disallow
the illegitimate and felonious Celestine Omehia-led Rivers State government from
demolishing the Port Harcourt City waterfront settlements; ensuring that only
the neutral, interim, Civilian Administrator of the state and/or subsequent
legitimate government of the state will have the authority and responsibility
for revamping and improving the various Port Harcourt City waterfront
settlements with a view to ensuring that the current waterfront dwellers are not
displaced but rather provided with affordable decent housing.
- Facilitate,
through the Elections Tribunal, an expeditious, open, fair and just judicial
review of the infamous “non-elections of April 2007 in Rivers State” that
resulted in the unacceptable emergence of Celestine Omehia as the governor of
Rivers State.
- Finally,
terminate immediately all acts of genocide and extrajudicial killing of the
oppressed, impoverished and defenseless people of Rivers State in particular and
the Niger Delta in general; by the Nigerian security forces through the use of
helicopter gunships and bombs at the pretext of flushing out miscreants and
criminals. The Rivers or Niger Delta people are not at war with Nigeria. The
unconscionable acts of genocide and brazen abuse of human rights being
perpetrated against the Niger Delta people must stop immediately.
In the strongest
terms, Ijaw Foundation condemns the selfish, mindless, shameless and
dishonorable Ijaw political office holders, elders, youth activists and
traditional rulers who have abominably betrayed the survival, security, welfare
and aspirations of the Ijaw Nation at the altar of ephemeral and damnable
self-aggrandizement. Some Ijaws have even condescended to such abysmal
ungodliness and depravity that they would receive money from the merchants of
evil to kill their fellow Ijaws and destroy their own Ijaw towns and villages!
How sad!! How tragic!!! In Ijaw culture, it is an abomination to shed innocent
blood and it is more so an abomination to shed the blood of fellow Ijaws. We
call on all such transgressors to repent of their abominable sins and nefarious
actions, and cleanse and rededicate themselves to the timeless Ijaw Heritage
of Righteousness. As Ijaws, as was frequently emphasized by our late Maestro
and King of Highlife Music, Cardinal Jim Rex Lawson in his songs, we have always
affirmed righteousness and the inevitable judgement of Tamuno (Almighty
God) by proclaiming: Ebi miyenbo ebi mi obo la, sei miyenbo
sei mi obo la.
In this regard,
once again, Ijaw Foundation calls on all our Ijaw Rights Activists
to eschew self-destructive factionalism and work together in
indestructible solidarity and sincerity of purpose to actualize the
ultimate goal of the noble Ijaw Struggle for Self Determination, socioeconomic
justice, environmental protection and survival.
We condemn and
reject the de facto State of Emergency in Port Harcourt which serves the
selfish, parochial and diabolical interests of Peter Odili, Celestine Omehia and
their stranglehold on Rivers State. We urge President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and
Vice President Goodluck Jonathan not to allow themselves, by omission or
commission, to be accomplices of the Reign of Evil, Tyranny, Oppression,
Injustice and Kleptomania in Rivers State, which if not stopped portend grave
and calamitous consequences that will overwhelm the capacity of the Nigerian
State to control.
We pray for God’s
grace and wisdom to guide and enable the Yar’Adua administration to act
righteously in the interest of peace and progress of Rivers State and
Nigeria.
Signed:
Ijaw Foundation
Board of Directors:
Dr. Ebipamone N.
Nanakumo, President
Mr. Patterson
Ogon, Vice President
Mr. Lincoln
Snithers, Secretary
Mr. Dawari
Longjohn, Treasurer
Mr. Benaebi
Benatari, Member
Signed on
behalf of the Ijaw Foundation Board of Directors:
Dr. Ebipamone N.
Nanakumo
President, Ijaw
Foundation Board of Directors
549 LEFFERTS AVENUE, BROOKLYN, NY 11225, USA* Phone & Fax: (718) 778-0536*
Website:
www.ijawfoundation.org
Ijaw Foundation is
a charitable nonprofit organization with Section 501 (c) (3) Tax Exempt Status
granted by the United States Internal Revenue Service.
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