₦airaland Forum

Itsekiris and the Ilajes are the main parasites, Main Yoruba people chased out from their home land in Yorubaland, where they settle now is ijaw and Okpe land, they are migrant in Delta.

The Eguns are not Yoruboid but Eweid group. They lean towards Benin republic than Yorubaland. The Akoko-Edos in Ondo state are Edoid groups and would like to rejoin their kins in Edo state.

The Eguns, the Ijaws, the Akoko-Edos etc.
The Eguns might want to rejoin their kins in Benin Republic while the Ijaws and Akoko-Edos will opt for Midwest or Eastern republics.

Why don't you dream of your own state where monkeys greet people "good afternoon" in the middle of town and you can catch squirrels in government house?

You should be more concerned with non Yorubas in the Southwest who would not want to be with the Yorubas. The Southwest is multi ethnic/cultural and some of this groups have always maitained that they want to be on their own.

What is your problem with asaba being the capital are we not all deltans? sometimes i wonder what you people really-want, acting like a child with no direction, and how can itsekiri and illajes own most of the oil in delta what a lair

Dude, seriously it is better to get your state producing more than to continue making insulting claims about Delta state people. Leave our Ilaje's and Itsekiri's out of any oil inspired love, afterall it is obvious how the Ilaje's outside of Delta state are forced to live like animals. Today in Delta, we have an Itsekiri man as governor even though they are a small minority; if they were to be outside of Delta, they would be banished to bestial slums like the Ilaje's.

Please bruv, keep your tall tails about oil production and bullshiit out of Delta state. We have already had a referendym in 1963 and 99% of Deltans (including Itsekiri's and Ilaje's) opted out of the Western region, because of the exact attitude you are displaying here.

Mind your state, while we mind ours. Thank you.

The controversy stirred by Dr. Junaid Mohammed on possible break up of Nigeria is yet to die down. Leaders of Kogi and Kwara, two Middle Belt states the Second Republic legislator threatened to drag along with the North have reacted. Group Political Editor BOLADE OMONIJO, EMMANUEL OLADESU and ADEKUNLE JIMOH present their angry responses:

THE political and social elite of Kogi and Kwara states are angry that a section of the North is threatening to hold them as bargain in the event that Nigeria disintegrates. Perhaps taking a cue from Karl Meier’s contention that “this house has fallen” and the foreign prediction that the country can only last a few years given the current sociological pressure, Junaid Mohammed told a Sunday newspaper that the North was not afraid of a break up. He, however, added that this would only be allowed if Kogi and Kwara states were ceded to the North.

But, furious at the sheer thought, David Jemibewon, a retired Major General, fired three questions in one minute: “On whose mandate is he talking? Whose interest is he representing? Who authorised him?”

Jemibewon, a founding member and leader of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) hails from Kogi State. He found it insulting that Mohammed could conceivably be speaking for the people of Kogi and Kwara states.

The former military governor of the defunct Western State who reacted on the phone, said Mohammed lacked the mandate of his people in Kogi to speak on such a sensitive issue.

He added: “If it’s his personal view, which I cannot query, there is no problem. But if he claims to be speaking on behalf of the North, who gave him the mandate?

“I don’t think he represents my interest until he gets my mandate. If he has been authorised, I don’t have the right to query him. But who authorised him?”

Jemibewon was too angry to continue with the interview. But Rotimi Obadofin, another Kogi politician would not want to contemplate such a development. He said Mohammed was wallowing in self-deception and self-delusion, pointing out that the two states would not go with the North, if there is a break-up.

He said: “If the country should disintegrate at the end of the day, which is most likely, Kwara and Kogi are returning to the West, and this is not negotiable. It is inconceivable that Yoruba of Kwara and Kogi will be part of the North. The boundary is clear. We are Yoruba. There is no boundary between Yoruba of Kogi and Kwara. The contiguity is there.

“We have the same culture, language and environment. We till the same land and drink water from the same source. We have the same blood. So, on the contrary, our location is far apart from Hausa/Fulaniland; thousands of miles apart. We don’t speak the same language. We don’t have the same culture. We don’t share the same boundary. In fact, we have absolutely nothing in common. It is easier to integrate Europeans with the Hausa/Fulani than to integrate Kwara and Kogi with them.”

The deputy governorship candidate of Action Congress of Nigeria in the state, Hon. Henry Ojuola, would not speak for the whole state. He said: “I am a Yoruba man from Kogi West. I got the mandate to represent my people in the House of Assembly, so I know what my people want. I know their interests, culture, political culture, behaviour and aspiration. I do not pray that Nigeria breaks and I don’t think that any patriot should work for the disintegration of his country.

“However, should we get to that point, certainly my people in the five local government areas in Kogi West will go with our kith and kin in the West. We share the same language and culture and would feel more comfortable with them. Junaid Mohammed cannot speak for us. Who is he to decide for our people? How can he from Kano do that?”

On the other two senatorial districts of the state, Ojuola said he was not in position to speak for them. His words: “I cannot speak for the Ebira and Igala. But, I know that we share a lot with the Ebira. Remember that we share affinity in old Kwara State. We understand one another.”

There were indications yesterday that leaders of various groups in the state who felt stung by the Junaid Mohammed interview held a meeting during the week to consider how to officially react to the statement. While some of the leaders dismissed it as a non-issue and the opinion of one man, others said he could be speaking for an entrenched Northern interest group and should, therefore, elicit appropriate responses.

A former House of Representatives member from Ebiraland said, “Junaid should not be dignified with response. I have followed his outbursts since the Second Republic and he derives pleasure in avoidable and unnecessary controversy. I will not want to speak on the issue. I am an Ebira from Kogi State. Beyond that, I am a Nigerian. That’s all. No more. I do not know if there is a North today. The only one that I know died many years ago.” He, however, refused to be identified.

Kwara people are no less outraged. Justice Mustapha Akanbi, a retired President of the Court of Appeal, who hails from Ilorin, would not contemplate the break-up of Nigeria. He described whoever is thinking of Nigeria’s disintegration as an enemy of the people and the African continent.

“Those talking about the division of Nigeria are pessimists and enemies of the country”, said the pioneer Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC),

Justice Akanbi told The Nation that, “speaking for myself, I don’t want the break-up of the country. I want a united country. I have struggled for pan-Africanism all my life. I have struggled all my life talking of one great Nigeria which all African countries can look up to as a role model. Although we have not been able to give them that satisfaction, I will, till the end of my life, struggle for a united Nigeria.

“I can’t contemplate a situation where Nigeria will be divided into pieces. It is forward ever, backward never. I think those who talk about dividing Nigeria are pessimists. I am an optimist.

Referring to his orientation early in life, Justice Akanbi, who was introduced to pan-Africanism as an admirer of the late Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, said: “Now getting to about 80 years, how can I start talking about the division of Nigeria? I hope it does not happen during my time and I pray that it does not happen in the time of my own children. Throughout my stay in Nigeria, I have seen any Nigerian as a Nigerian, as I have seen him as an African and that is my basic philosophy and that of my family. I daily pray for the greatness of Nigeria and Africa. When Europeans are having the European Union and other countries are united, how can we be talking about Nigeria in small pieces? Once you start that, you are running into deep waters and I hope the whirlwind will not consume us.

“So the question of whether Kwara, Kogi or any of the states will belong to one area, as far as I am concerned, is a non-issue. As a matter of fact, I prefer to be known as Akanbi, the pan-Africanist.”

The Kwara State governorship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in last year’s poll, Alhaji Mohammed Dele Belgore (SAN), was optimistic that Nigeria would not be balkanised.

In Belgore’s words: “We don’t think that Nigeria will break up; we certainly hope it will not break up. Our strength as a nation lies in the different peoples working together for a common purpose of development and economic empowerment.

“Poverty and unemployment do not discriminate between north and south. These are ills that are common to both and these are matters that should call for our attention. Rather than talk about break- up, we should not be talking about Nigeria breaking up. instead we should be talking about building a strong and virile nation.”

The possibility of disintegration of Nigeria has come up in debates in recent times, following communal disputes in different parts of the country, the Niger Delta struggle, the campaign for a Sovereign State of Biafra in the South East and the devastating strikes by Boko Haram nihilists in the North.

There are now more strident calls for sovereign national conference, greater autonomy to the federating units and need for regional control of resources as was the case in the First Republic.

This has reportedly and understandably led to unease in the North that believes that it could be at the receiving end if the centre is weakened, leading to the recent call by chairman of the Northern States Governors Forum for a revisit to the derivation formula designed to pacify and placate a devastated Niger Delta.

http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/news/39301-don’t-drag-us-into-break-up-debate%2C-kogi%2C-kwara-leaders-tell-north.html

SOKOTO (AFP) – Around a hundred troops, military trucks and two helicopters were deployed in a failed hostage rescue bid in Sokoto in which an Italian and Briton were killed, witnesses said on Friday.

As Italy seethed over how it had been kept in the dark about Thursday’s deadly raid in the northwestern city of Sokoto, witnesses said the captors and the security forces waged a gun battle lasting seven hours.

At least two hostage-takers were killed in the operation along with British national Chris McManus, 28, and Italy’s Franco Lamolinara, they added.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan blamed the deaths of the hostages on members of the Islamist group Boko Haram, which has waged a violent campaign mainly in the northeast of the country. He said the killers had been arrested.

But local residents of the calm but hot and dusty city of Sokoto, the base of Nigeria’s supreme Muslim leader, the Sultan of Sokoto, disagree the Islamist group was behind the kidnapping.

“We don’t believe it,” a 40-year-old businessman living in the neighbourhood told AFP. “They are kidnappers. We don’t have Boko Haram in Sokoto.”

Sokoto sits on the border with Niger, on the southern edge of the Sahara desert.

British Prime Minister David Cameron meanwhile took responsibility for authorising the operation to rescue the two expatriate engineers who were kidnapped in May.

His Italian counterpart Mario Monti convened a security committee meeting over Britain’s failure to consult Rome before approving the rescue bid.

Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano was quoted as saying that the failure to inform Rome about the bid was ‘inexplicable’.

While officials gave few details about the operation or those involved, newspapers in London said that it had included members of the British elite forces Special Boat Service (SBS) who had been in Nigeria for a fortnight.

Residents said at least 100 soldiers were involved in the operation.

They came in two trucks and a tank and blocked the entrance to the house.

“At around 11 am I saw soldiers coming… uncountable, about 100. They started firing,” said the businessman, asking not to be named.

Another resident earlier said “around 100 troops surrounded the area.”

The kidnappers apparently tried to flee the troops by scaling a wall into a next-door house which was partially built.

Soldiers asked residents for old tyres which they lit and tossed into the building in a bid to smoke the kidnappers out, then engaged them in an intense gun battle, the witnesses told AFP.

“After the shootout had been going on for about seven hours, the soldiers gained access into the house,” said a witness whose house is directly opposite.

“Initially they brought out two dead bodies I believe to be white men, followed by two bodies of dark-skinned people I believe to be among the gunmen,” said the witness.

The witness reported seeing three men taken out of the house in handcuffs. They also said a private security guard at the uncompleted house was killed in crossfire.

Bullet holes poked the walls of the two houses which were unguarded on Friday. Residents walked in and out at will.

British and Nigerian authorities had been concerned from the start that the kidnappers were Islamist extremists as they had ignored a large amount of cash that the men had stored in the apartment where they were abducted, according to British media.

Cameron said the bid to rescue the men had been authorised after “a window of opportunity arose to secure their release”.

He said the two hostages were held by “terrorists” who had made “very clear threats to take their lives”, and they had been in “imminent and growing danger”.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague said that there had been “limited time” and too many “constraints” to consult Italy ahead of the operation.

British media said that Nigerian intelligence officials had tracked the group to Sokoto. GCHQ, Britain’s intelligence listening centre, identified and monitored the telephone calls of the gang.

Around a dozen members of the SBS had been helicoptered in to rescue the hostages on Thursday, British reports said.

Residents said two helicopters had hovered over the middle class Mabera neighbourhood mid-morning on Thursday before the shootout broke out.

AFP received a video showing McManus and Lamolinara in August. In the footage, both men said their kidnappers were from Al-Qaeda.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, has in recent years claimed kidnappings of foreign workers in countries including Niger, which borders Nigeria to the north, but never in Nigeria.

The two were kidnapped by heavily armed men from their apartment in neighbouring Kebbi state in May 2011. They were working for a construction firm Stabilini Visinoni which was helping build a central bank office in the city.

Boko Haram has been blamed for increasingly deadly and sophisticated attacks in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and largest oil producer.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/03/100-soldiers-two-helicopters-used-in-failed-hostage-rescue-bid/

It is true that the failed rescue attempt does raise the profile or notoriety of Boko Haram but I seriously think GEJ's permission for the mission was merely perfunctory - the Brits would have gone in without his consent if necessary.

BTW OP this thread title says Sokoto, other reports say Kebbi.

All these silly baseless conspiracy theories, grow up, do you think this is 'spooks' or 24 or other television programmes? is it today we have conflicting reports from Nigerian operatives or any operatives for that matter.

this is what it is; some people in Nigeria feel it is a good idea to kidnap people, Nigerian or non-Nigerian for whatever reason (money, political or even religious). Our security forces are not the best in the world as such we have the right to seek support from whomever.

If you are a patriotic Nigerian you will spend you efforts decrying those so-called Nigerians who terrorize our country.

21.25 A senior security source in Nigeria has told the Associated Press that the two men died in the crossfire during the rescue operation, raising the possibility that they might have been killed accidentally by their would-be rescuers. Britain has said they died at the hands of their captors.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/nigeria/9131831/British-hostage-killed-in-Nigeria-live.html

@bittyend FYI central bank in Nigeria issues bank notes, despite Sanusi's efforts Nigeria is still very much a cash based society so for everyday life people need cash, hence the need for Central Bank branches. Birnin Kebbi is 200kms from the nearest central bank.

Say thank you for the enlightenment.

link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/nigeria/9131831/British-hostage-killed-in-Nigeria-live.html

Italian MPs have called for the exact circumstances of the operation to be "clarified with rigour". Massimo D'Alema, the president of the parliamentary security committee and a former prime minister, said he wanted to know why the operation went ahead without the British telling their Italian counterparts about it.

18.53 Italian MPs are asking whether the government knew in advance of the special forces operation and why Italian forces were not involved, says Nick Squires .

Emanuele Fiano, spokesman on security and defence for the Democratic Party, called on the government of Mario Monti to "clarify" exactly how the operation went wrong.

Rosa Calipari, another MP, said:

From what we know so far about this tragic operation it would seem that, notwithstanding the presence of an Italian who had been in the hands of kidnappers for a long time, our country was only told after the raid.

"We must ask why the Italian authorities in Nigeria, or other intelligence officers in the African country, were not involved in the decision for the operation to go ahead."