IYC BLASTS ITSEKIRIS FOR CALLING IJAWS MILITANTS, SAYS THEY ARE GREEDY

There seems to be a brewing crises between Ijaws and itshekiris in Delta state over control of the state resources and the land.

The cold war became visible on Friday 8th July, when the Coordinator of Itsekiri Movement for Peace and Justice (IMPJ), Amaechi Omagbitse Ogbonna, on vanguard newspaper report tagged all Ijaws in Warri South West as "criminals", the itshekiri group in the report went further to say that "Burutu is the only Ijaw Locality producing oil in Delta state" and states that "there is no place or land recognized as Gbaramatu Clan or Kingdom"

In a refutal statement, Comrade Godswill Doubra Wuruyai,
Information Officer, IYC, Gbaramatu Clan Chapter has lambasted the itshekiri group, describing their information as false, misleading, provocative, and lies, all in a bid to make the public believe that Ijaws are tenants to itshekiris.

Below is the Press statement from the Iyc gbaranmatu clan:

IJAW YOUTH COUNCIL, GBARAMATU CLAN CHAPTER.
PRESS RELEASE.
FRIDAY JULY 8, 2016.

Our attention have been drawn to a press statement on Vangaurd News Paper on July 8, 2016, by the Coordinator of Itsekiri Movement for Peace and Justice(IMPJ), Amaechi Omagbitse Ogbonna, tagging all Ijaws in Warri South West as "criminals". The group went further to slate that "Burutu is the only Ijaw Locality producing oil in Delta state" and that "there is no place call Gbaramatu Clan or Kingdom".

Ordinarily, we would have ignored the said statement, owing to the fact that Amaechi and his group are entitle to their own false opinion. The fact is, truth is, irrespective of any false plot to pavert it through lies and slanders. Nevertheless, our response is needful based on the premise that,  the World and the Federal Government continual feeding from these false information from the Itsekiri tribe will over time configure their minds to belief that, the Ijaws in Warri South West Local Government most especially the Gbaramatu people are tenants to the Itsekiris.

However, this is not the first time the Itsekiris are dishing out false history to delude gullible Nigerians from the truth. On February 20, 2016, the Royal father of the Itsekiri people, Ogiame Ikenwoli (Olu of Warri) was cited on the pages of Vanguard, when he made the controversial claim that: "...the Maritime University that is causing problem for my own brother, Tompolo, the land in question belong to Omadino,..."

The aforementioned assertion by IMPJ and the Olu of Itsekiri are coordinatedly aimed at:
1. Insighting the Federal Government against the Ijaws in Warri South West, most especially the peace loving people of Gbaramatu Kingdom in a bid to use Federal apparatus to foster their ethnic agenda which is to see all Ijaw communities in Warri South West LGA and in particular Gbaramatu Kingdom burn in flames as a means to take vengeance for the Warri crisis.

2. Their aim is to deceive Nigeians and the world that the Ijaws in Warri South West and Warri North LGAs are their tenants. With such statement rooted on hatred and lies, the Itsekiris are poised on ensuring that what ever benefit that will be coming to these Kingdoms must come through them.

The fact is, the Ijaws in the aforementioned LGAs have been peacefully coexisting with the Itsekiris right from antiquity. But on the discovery of oil reserves in the area in the early 1960s, the Itsekiris were holistically possessed with the greedy syndrome of 'I must own all'. At first it seem like it was a group of greedy Itsekiri elites. But with the statement accredited to the Itsekiri King, it is save for one to assert that confusion and coveteousness are the common trait of the average Itsekiri person.

From the foregoing, we are convinced to agree with the assertion by Oronfo Ni Itsekiri on June 4, 2016, on TALK YOUR MIND ITSEKIRI (An Itsekiri Facebook page) that "The average ITSÈKĪRĪ (Sic) person is a greedy person, and because of greed they always don't tell the truth. They always bend what is truth to favour them/themselves (Sic), also, most of our history are based on lies to promote their interest. And a continuation in these lies will and can never bring Unification, oneness and development..."
If Ogiame Ikenwoli  says he "See an Ijaw man as" his "brother from another mother" (Vangaurd: Feb 20, 2016), why then the effort to covet our land? Why is it that, under his watch, his kinsmen are making statement that could ignite a fresh crisis between the Ijaws and the Itsekiris?

With the above facts, we want to enlighten the minds of Nigerians and the world who the Itsekiri nation had continually deceived with false history that Gbaramatu, Egbema, Ogbe-Ijoh and Diebiri are autonomous Ijaw Kingdom under Warri South West and Warri North LGAs respectively. That the blown oil installations by  the trending Niger Delta Avengers are mostly on Ijaw lands. We suffer more from the effect than these Itsekiri kingpins raising false alarm just to get the sympathy from the government of the day.

As we the Gbaramatu people, we know that we are th major targets of the Itsekiris to unleash their vengeance on. Their plan is to turn the Federal Government against us in order to watch us burn in flames as a means to take revenge for the Warri crisis but God will not allow that. We therefore call on His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari to watch out against this ploy by the Itsekiris in order not to allow them to use his administration to foster the barbaric ethnic agenda.

Sign:
Comrade Godswill Doubra Wuruyai,
Information Officer, IYC, Gbaramatu Clan Chapter.