By Phillips Ebenezer
The Ijaw National Congress (INC) Worldwide has advised some people of Rivers State to avoid statements capable of causing ethnic crisis in the South-South state.
INC Worldwide National Publicity Secretary,Chief Ezonebi Oyakemeagbegha, gave the advice in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja.
Oyakemeagbegha said his advice follows assertions in some quarters that Rivers is the sixth Igbo state.
He said the statement was misleading as it did not reflect the true situation in Rivers adding that the fact that an Ikwerre indigene emerged the president-general of a `faction’ of Ohaneze Worldwide did not confer the status of sixth Igbo state on Rivers as claimed by one Ikwerre indigene.
“The INC ordinarily would not have responded to such reports if not for the fact that such publications can mislead the gullible reading public.
“For the education of our people and the entire reading public, the INC wishes to state categorically, that Rivers, as currently populated, cannot be referred to as an Igbo state.
“Rivers population currently has more than 50 per cent as Ijaws. There are also other ethnic nationalities like Ogoni, Ekpeye, and Eleme.
“Concede that there are people within the Ikwerre ethnic nationality who trace their origin to the Igbo ethnic nationality, the fact still remains that they are infinitesimal as some historians within the same Ikwerre ethnic nationality are daily disputing their ties to the Igbo,” he said.
The INC spokesman said it would be equally unjust for Ijaw nation to claim ownership of states by the mere fact that the Ijaw exists in those states.
“For the sake of clarity, the fact that Ijaw exists in states like Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Abia does not make such states Ijaw states.
“Also that Prof. Benjamin Okaba, the President of INC is from Delta, does not automatically convert it to Ijaw state.
“Ijaws lay claim only to Bayelsa as an Ijaw state simply because it is predominately occupied by the Ijaws. The fact of geography, history and ethnic web does not lie.
“Ijaws are not ready to concede any inch of their land to anybody. For those who have little flair for history, Ijaws are known never to bow to anybody,’’ Oyakemeagbegha said.
Oyakemeagbegha recalled that Ijaw people have a history as the only ethnic nationality that was never conquered by the colonialists.
He, therefore, said the INC would continue to resist any attempt to annex an ancestral land of the Ijaw people.
