Your Excellency,
As a leader, who believesin the rule of law, you will agree with me that there are legitimate means of fighting for those who claimed to be oppressed and the downtrodden and certainly the intimidation and threat against the person and office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to prevent him from performing his constitutional duties and abduction of 14 media practitioners as well as six other persons from Ugborodo Community, in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State, through the use of arms and ammunition by some hirelings in Oporoza community, also in Warri South West LGA, cannot be said to have fallen within the realm of civilized behaviour and rational conduct.
I will not want to generalize the issue to the entire Ijaw nation because I know a lot of law abiding, responsible and rational Ijaw persons, who believe in resolving knotty issues through conventional and legal means unlike High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, a.k.a. Tompolo and his kinsmen in Gbaramatu kingdom, who have translated violence as a way of life and engage in violence under the guise of fighting for justice.
Specifically, I am amused by the statement of Tompolo, in his widely publicized advertorial in which he states partly that: “It is no longer news to all that our Itsekiri neighbors, using all advantages of being in government and power since the time of former Governor Chief James Ibori (whose mother is Itsekiri) as well as the incumbent Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan (also an Itsekiri) who both as Commissioner and later Secretary to the State Government under Ibori, cannot insulate himself from the calculated attempt by the government-backed Itsekiri’s attempts to enslave Gbaramatu Kingdom."
What an irony of life? It is sad and disheartening that the Gbaramatu Ijaw, who erroneously styled themselves as "Warri Ijaw" could come out to publicly vilify and castigate ex-Governor James Ibori and Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, who liberated and exposed them to civilized living.
Is it not the same Ibori and Uduaghan administration that took the following decisions in favour of the Ijaws as against the law and the interest of the Itsekiri?
1. The controversial relocation of the Warri South-West Local Government Area Headquarters from Ogidigben (Itsekiri Community) to Ogbe-Ijoh. Uptill now, Ogidigben is still enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as the headquarters of Warri South West LGA.
2. The single term chairmanship rotational political arrangement in a local government that is dominated by the Itsekiris as proven by verifiable census figure and INEC ward delineation, where the Ijaws have continued to occupy the seat through government influence till date.
3. Giving staff of office to Gbaramatu King as against existing court judgments to the level of Supreme Court, that the Ijaw of Gbaramatu do not have right of radical title to the land.
4. Itsekiri land belonging to Omadino community as evident in the case of CHIEF E.E. SILLO & 2 Ors (for themselves and on behalf of Omadino people) Vs. James Uluba & 2 Ors Suit No. W/30/1962, was given to the Ijaws in Gbaramatu by the same Uduaghan administration to host the NIMASA Dockyard and Shipyard (Okerenghigho). Even when Itsekiri raised issue of land ownership, Governor Uduaghan ensued that Mr. President performed the ground breaking.
5) The Ibori and Uduaghan administration appointed the so-called Warri Ijaw from Gbaramatu kingdom into the state's cabinet for the first time in the history of the area. It would be recalled that the appointment Chief Bosin Ebikeme and George Timinimi was widely celebrated by the Ijaw of Gbaramatu as a major breakthrough in their struggle for civilization. One of their own, Mr. Kingsley Otuaro, is a serving Commissioner in the state's oil agency, DESOPADEC.
From the foregoing and others, which space will not permit me to enumerate, it is crystal clear that both the Ibori and Uduaghan administration never used the seat to enslave the Ijaws but they rather favoured them.
High Chief Government Ekpemupolo should be called to order because he is breaching the law and principles of amnesty granted him by the Federal Government. The arson, kidnapping and killing of Itsekiri people he led before the presidential pardon should not be repeated. I am therefore appealing to Your Excellency to constitute a fact finding panel that will carry out on-the-spot assessment and unearth the truth about the ownership of the land, which is the cause of the present debacle.
Tompolo’s reference to the economic and industrial gains of the EPZ as “nebulous and loudly-echoed economic and industrial gains slogan” is quite unfortunate and laughable, especially against the backdrop of the downward slide in the price of crude oil at the International Market with the consequent negative effect on the nation's economy. More importantly, gas resource has become the most sort-after business investment around the globe, with its attendant developmental effects, which triggers the world's economy.
Little wonder he issued a threat stopping the ground breaking ceremony of the Ogidigben EPZ project, thinking that the siting of the project is a back door move for the acquisition of land. Land ownership and acquisition can only be decided by the judgment of a Court of competent jurisdiction which Tompolo has disregarded with impunity.
But the publication has succeeded in achieving one goal. It has exposed the crass ignorance and shallow knowledge about the EPZ by Tompolo and his co-travellers.
I am compelled to ask; is the threat of war a civil and legal means to address perceived “injustice”? Or is the abduction and assault of 14 media professionals, civil and legal? Is the intimidation and frame-up of 20 innocent Nigerians by planting guns, removed from Tompolo's armoury in their boat, civil and legal?
Tompolo should use his influence with the ‘power that be’ to attract the much desired development to the South-South region, rather than causing an atmosphere of rancor and ethnic disharmony in the region. What benefit has his association with President Jonathan attracted to the Ijaw in the Niger Delta in particular? Let him disabuse the mind of his own people that his so-called struggle is not self-seeking.
I would not want to delve deeply into Tompolo’s statement on Barr. Festus Keyamo, but would want to ask the rationale behind Tompolo's alleged threat to kill a man (Festus Keyamo) he calls his friend and brother for doing his job as a legal practitioner.
When I had issues with Pa. E.K. Clark, my friends from the Ijaw extraction, advised me that even if I am fighting for my people, I should see Pa. E.K. Clark, as my father and I heed their advice till date. Tompolo or any other person should not hide under any guise to insult the person of Pa. J.O.S. Ayomike because he is a father-figure of the Itsekiri people and he owes the Itsekiri people a duty to speak for them and continually protect their heritage,no matter the circumstances.
I must also use this medium to stress that I am totally against anybody, group or institution that attempts to denigrate the Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, because we are not in a Banana Republic. "If you call your wrapper Abanaya, everybody will call it Abanaya and if you call it Single, others will equally call it Single." Mr. President is from our region and as such we all owe him the much needed respect and support .
Conclusively, the peace loving Itsekiri people appreciate the fact that you are the President of all Nigerians (Itsekiri Nation inclusive). We also appreciate the choice of Ogidigben as the host of the $16 Billion EPZ Project that would bring development to the entire South-South Region and Nigeria at large. However, you should be wary of the people beating the drums of war to thwart the actualization of this laudable project.
Sadly sir, these people are creating the impression that they derive power from your good office to actualize their selfish aims.
Sir, we are in peace with our law-abiding neighbours, especially the Ilajes, who have openly told the world their historical link to Ogidigben land as contained in their advertorial in the Vanguard Newspaper of Friday November 21, 2014. In the usual culture of inclusion by Itsekiri people, all ethnic nationalities will be free to benefit in the EPZ project as experienced in the Chevron's Escravos Gas To Liquid (EGTL) Project.
Mr. President, I urge you to prevail on High Chief Government Ekpemupolo to heed calls by all well-meaning people by apologising in a paid advertorial in any National daily to the 14 abducted journalists, their media organizations and the 6 other innocent citizens for the pains and torture they passed through in the hands of his foot soldiers at Oporaza, rather than the attempt by Tompolo to cover-up and justify his illegality. Might cannot be right in this case.
Thank you and God bless Sir,
SIGNED:
CHIEF AYIRIMI EMAMI
AJUWAOYIBOYAMI OF WARRI KINGDOM
AKA AKULAGBA
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