₦airaland Forum

UNEARTHING OF FACTS, ISSUES FG NEEDS TO ADDRESS BEFORE THE COMMENCEMENT OF NIGERIA MARITIME UNIVERSITY

Now that dialogue is sounding melodious in the ears of NDA and other militants. FG has identified the Maritime university as one major avenue to settle aggrieved Niger Deltans. A welcome development by everyone in Niger Delta.
Before the commencement of Maritime university, FG needs to recognise and identify the existing controversy and communal crisis about the true owners of the land of the university. Since FG is poised on addressing Niger Delta agitation, issues like these need quick fix to avert further destruction and disruption of economic activities. I therefore urge FG and Nigerians to ride with me as I unravel hidden facts about the true owners of the land.

Earlier in 2015, supreme court decided that the true owners of the land is "Omadino community" and not "Okerenkoko". The landspace is a property of Omadino community with real name as "Okerenghigho".

Okerenghigho (now called Okerenkoko by the Ijaws) is where the present Maritime university is been built, is on Omadino land.

History says, In 1962, the Itsekiri people of Omadino filed a suit, in Suit No. W/30/1962: CHIEF E. E. SILLO & 2 ORS (for themselves and on behalf of Omadino people) vs. JAMES ULUBA & 2 ORS (for themselves and on behalf of Okerenghigho people) sued for possession of title to Okerenghigho, rents and injunction.
“ In a judgment delivered on October 3, 1969, the court entered judgment for the Itsekiri people of Omadino. Part of the judgment reads: “I am satisfied that the village land Okerenghigho which is the subject matter in dispute in this case falls within the area described in the claim in Suit No. W/29/51 in respect of which the then Supreme Court (now High Court) declared Plaintiffs (that is, Itsekiri people of Omadino )are the real owners… Although it will now be superfluous to grant a declaration of possessory title of ownership to the plaintiffs, for the avoidance of doubt, I hereby grant it as claimed in respect of Okerenghigho…
“The Ijaw appeal to the Supreme Court in SC/294/70 was on January 31, 1973
dismissed by Elias C. J., Sowemimo and Ibekwe SC JJ.
With the above, I suppose one does not need a prophet or witch Doctor to know the rightful owner.

I therefore suggest to FG, In dialogue, they should respect the decrees by the law court and rule of law in granting what is due to the true owner of the land, especially in naming the location of the Maritime university. Any other decision pertaining to the rightful owner will be seen as neglect on the path of FG to the people of Omadino(Itsekiri) and rule of law, which may likely lead to unrest and emergence of splinter militant groups. Issues like this should be addressed in the right way to satisfy everyone which brings about relative peace.

All I want is truth be told and sustained peace in Niger-Delta.
Edon Mayomi

NOW THAT TALKS OF NEGOTIATION IS SOUNDING MELODIOUS TO AVENGERS' EARS
Perhaps you're Itsekiri, Bini, Ijaw, Urhobo, Isoko, Ibibio, Efik, or any of the other unique ethnic nationalities of the Niger Delta reading my two kobo on this trending Niger Delta issue, you would first agree with me that our region needs to get it right this time.

I am young, talented, rich, humorous, cheated, virile, raped, intelligent, poor, outspoken, exploited,hardworking, broken. I am the kaleidoscopic fortunes so described. I am Niger Delta. I decided to speak via this medium since my arranged interview with a leading TV station could not pull through. Calls have been coerced to lend voice to the "Niger Delta struggle" and the complicit silence from most illustrious sons of the region have either sent mixed feelers to the boys wielding dynamites in our creeks that they enjoy the support of the region or has further pitch us against other Nigerians who might be seeing us as Oliver Twists. For the records, I am not party to violence and criminality as a method of expressing one's self in this age and time. I believe same for other right thinking Niger Deltans.

In each of the statements issued by our brothers wielding heavy weapons in the creeks, they never fail to announce that no human soul is lost in their strikes. Fair enough! They also solicit support for their crusade. I wish I can talk with my brothers directly, I would love to remind them that the clean up of Ogoniland has been projected to span twenty years, according to the UNEP report. If they keep blowing up oil installations in Warri and Bayelsa, when the dust settles, where and when are we going to start another politics of clean up from? Have they considered the implications of this monumental damage to us -inhabitants of the region?

Now, that negotiations are imminent, how will the creeks look like when repairs begin? You see, one does not lacerate himself with deep cuts in a bid to punish his enemy because after healing, the ugly scars will haunt you forever. Wherever the negotiations swing, one fact is clear, we have not done our region justice by adding salt to the injuries oil companies and some of our leaders have been meting out on us with this incessant blowing of facilities in our domain.

Let me remind my brothers that in 2009 when this exact approach yielded fruits for older gun boys, it came in the shape of amnesty and juicy contracts for a select few. The generality of our region didn't feel the impact of the struggle. All the interventionist agencies from NDDC to Niger Delta Ministry arising from collective struggles, contributed by all the ethnics of the region at different points in time, are a far cry from impacting the lives of the ordinary people of the Delta. Rather internal wragglings, separatism, nepotism, ethnophobia ensured that the agencies do not get out of scandalous waters.

How do the Avengers and other strike groups want us to trust that they mean well for us when the old "fat" negotiators and new hopefuls are falling over themselves to grab a slot on the negotiators team? Is this what Niger Delta Struggle is about? I pledge to be a general in your struggle if other ethnic nationalities in the region are carried along. I'll be a Commando if this struggle dwells on: Implementing the resolutions of the National Conference; The oil companies are prevailed upon to build their headquarters and training facilities in the region that they have helped disfigured.

The Delta Gas City project that will benefit not just Itsekiris and Ijaws but all of Nigeria is one of the core of the struggle. The Federal Government is prevailed upon to disband the principalities and polititricks that cloud the resuscitation of the Warri, Sapele, Calabar, Onne and Port-Harcourt Sea Ports. Lagos is congested, Lagos is
congested, yet other ports are suffering -is Lagos the only port city in Nigeria?
The Federal Government is prevailed upon to site more of her institutions and agencies in the Delta as is the case in the South-West and entire North.

Companies sited in our region employ our teeming youth instead of collaborating with some of our leaders to bypass honouring the spirit of the local content law as it concerns employment quota. Our leaders are held accountable for the much that has been accruing to the region in the last 18 years. This is my opinion. These are the items that should be on the table for negotiations if truly they want to bear the responsibility of becoming the mouthpiece of all the peoples of the region. Otherwise all the bombardment, threats, destabilisation leave people
like me with no doubt that the struggle is nothing but an honey-licking campaign by a select few, much to further impoverishment of the Niger Delta.
MONOYO EDON is a social pundit and a stakeholder in the struggle for genuine development of the Niger Delta.

This post is a reaction to the NDA recent post "They said, heavy presence of the military would not stop them from their planned action that would shock the whole world, noted that Gbaramatu, now under military siege, was just one kingdom out the several Ijaw kingdoms spread across seven states". This is a clear indication that the NDA is nothing but an Ijaw group.
The Niger-Delta Avengers should be known as "Ijaw National Avengers" the reason is because they are giving the region a bad name. The region is made up of other tribes; Itsekiri, Urhobo, Benin, Ibibio, Ilaje, Ndokwa etc.
Their agitations are a sectional fight and not a common fight of the region. It is this same ethnophobic attitude that has made the region not to see any significant growth.
NDA(Ijaws) is clamouring for a sovereign state of their own not a sovereign state of the region. It may interest the reader to know that most of the places where the pipelines has been bombed in Delta state belongs to the Iwere people(Warri) where the ijaws are only tenants. The Ijaws are known to be owners of Patani, Burutu and Bomadi LGA in Delta State, I wonder when they became owners of Warri ( Warri South, Warri North, Warri South West) LGA which belongs to Itsekiri.
This post is not to arouse any form of ethnic malice but to make the general public know that the NDA are acting an Ijaw script. They are not fighting for the region but for their selfish agenda as a tribe. No one has a problem with any tribe that seeks secession but they shouldn't use other tribes land as a battle ground and also destroying installations sited there.

Well Articulated! Let wailers wail