Angered by the Friday November 14, 2014 aborted ground breaking ceremony of Export Processing Zone, EPZ, Ogidigben by President Goodluck Jonathan, the National Association of Itsekiri Graduates, NAIG under the leadership of Comrade Ajagbe Oritsegbegbemi have vowed to employ the 3Rs – No Retreat, No Reserve and No Regret if the continuous postponement of the ground breaking is not stopped immediately.
NAIG in a statement signed by its President, Ajagbe Oritsegbegbemi declared that the decision by President Goodluck Jonathan to call off the ground breaking ceremony of EPZ as a result of threats from High Chief Government Ekpemupulo and the people of Gbaramatu in Warri South-West local government undermines the territorial integrity of Nigeria and shows a government which is weak as a result of sentiment.
According to the Itsekiri graduates’ association, the federal government action is an indication that violence and not the rule of law should be encouraged in a supposedly sovereign state where all inhabitants ought to have equal rights.
Ajagbe posited that the federal government should not take the Itsekiris of Delta State for granted, stressing that no ethnic group has the monopoly of violence.
He noted that the land ownership claim by the Gbaramatu people of where the EPZ is situated is “falsehood driven by greed and federal government connection” which Itsekiri people “who made elaborate preparation for the ground breaking ceremony will no longer tolerate.”
The association observed that most surprising is the “reoccurrence of the postponements of the EPZ Ground Breaking Ceremony when those of NIMASA Dockyard and Shipyard as well as Nigeria Maritime University, NMU were done with ease because of Ijaw dominance of those institutions.”
×
![]()