Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba
The Egbema Ijaw people of Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State have been called upon to boycott all activities relating to the upcoming inauguration of the two commissioners-designate from the area.
They said the decision was prompted by “the state government’s relentless practice of discrimination and political subjugation of the Egbema-Ijaw of Warri North since the creation of Delta in 1991.”
Egbema Unity Forum, one of the groups agitating and campaigning for the restoration of Egbema-Ijaw integrity and dignity, stated this in a statement yesterday.
The statement, which was signed by Joshua Lemigha, the chairman of Egbema Unity Forum, and Mr. Tobou Tamaralayefa, secretary of the Forum, said the call to boycott the commissioners’ inauguration ceremony was primarily to express the Ijaw’s displeasure with the Delta State Governor, Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, for not appointing an Ijaw person into his proposed State Executive Council.
The group said Oborevwori has dashed the hope of Egbema-Ijaw people who enthusiastically supported his election, believing that he would address and redress decades of marginalisation and neglect by successive state governments for 32 years.
They described as provocative and disappointing the governor’s selection of two commissioners-designate of Itsekiri ethnic extraction for Warri North, especially when he was aware that the member representing Warri North in the state House of Assembly is also Itsekiri, the other ethnic group in the local government area.
According to the statement, “We passionately appeal to our dear Egbema sons and daughters to boycott and stay away from any meeting called by these neocolonizers, and also the swearing-in of the two commissioners from Warri North until such a time when political certainty and sanity return and the error corrected in the name justice.”
Titled: ‘Appeal to Egbema People to Boycott the Swearing-in Ceremony of Warri North Commissioners’, the statement said the Ijaw in the area have practically resigned to fate on the realisation that their “trust had been taken for granted in line with a grand plot to keep the Egbema people under political subjugation now and in the future.
“Since the creation of Warri North Local Government Area in 1991, all consecutive chairmen of the council have been Itsekiri until 2020, when a son of Egbema, Hon. Smart Asekutu, emerged the chairman 27 years after. It took years of gun battles and protests until 2020 when it pleased God to use former Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, to correct the invidious political imbalance.
“When they lost out in nominating their kinsman, they insisted on making the nomination for the Ijaws. The Itsekiris led by Michael ‘Ejele’ Diden imposed him on Okowa and the Egbema people as the popular choice. Ranging from councillors, and supervisory councillors to delegates in elections, choices, and appointment decisions are mostly influenced by them. Egbema leaders have no choice but to accept them. This is the sad reality.
“Many may wonder how on earth a people with four federal wards as against their six federal wards would take 27 years before producing a chairman. Did Egbema people simply sleep on their inalienable right? Then, what of the Delta State House of Assembly? Has it not been perpetually taken by Itsekiri for 32 years running? They currently have a member representing Warri North Local Government Area, Hon. Fred Martins. By 2027, they would probably have had it for 35 years back to back.”
They further stated that the plight of the Egbema people could be likened to the American Negroes and that of black indigenous people of the South African apartheid era, vowing to continue the struggle until their inclusion in the state system.
