FG urged to caution Delta Gov over plots against Itsekiri

By Kunle Olorogun

The Federal Government has been alerted to address the grievances of Itsekiri people over plots by the Delta State Governor Sheriff Obovrwor in collaboration with some ethnic groups to take by force territories belonging to the Itsekiri.
The Governor of Delta State appears to be on a vengeance seeking mission with the sole aim of rewriting the almost 1000-year old history of the Itsekiri people that is well documented and preserved by local and international authorities, the Pan Yoruba group said on Friday. The group said the Delta State Governor in collaboration with some unscrupulous officials in the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) are plotting delineation of wards to reduce the Itsekiti voting potentials and to further stunt the future of the ethnic group.

In a statement after its national meeting held at Ibadan, the O’odua Nationalist Coalition, (ONAC) said the Yoruba Nation is following with keen interests conscious plans to alienate and subdue the Itsekiri people by all means necessary. The group said the plan will only fuel a major crisis that may create instability in the Niger-Delta region. It accused the State Governor of carrying out policies that overrule various existing Judgements of the Supreme Court on land ownership in Warri Kingdom. ONAC said there can never be two Kings in one Kingdom.
‘The Yoruba Nation is blood-bound with the Itsekiri. We stand shoulder-by-shoulder, heart-by-heart and hand-by hand to protect and vehemently defend the interests of each other wherever there is a threat. We warn of dire consequences if the Delta State Governor and his collaborators continue with the grand plot to destroy Itsekiri Nation,’ the coalition said in the statement signed by Chief Akinola Adelugba and Usman Oriola.
The group accused the State Governor of creating artificial Kings right on land owned by Itsekiri people. It said since 1999, the government had tried to pick people from the streets and declare them Kings in order to polarise the heritage of Itsekiri people and undermine the ancient authority of the Itsekiri.
‘Royalty is being created where there were one. Crowns are being purchased from street hawkers to establish fake Kingdoms on Itsekiri land. The Governor should stop his primordial instincts of face serious consequences for his criminal actions,’ ONAC said.
The group said the ethnic policies of the State Government risk sending Delta State to an era of atomic society in perpetual conflict with itself,
ONAC is a coalition of several Pan Yoruba groups established in the year 1999. The coalition said since 1999, successive governments in Delta State with the exception of Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan have tried to subdue the Itsekiri through various policies that are calculated to destroy them.
‘The Yoruba Nation and Itsekiri will not accept this. We are going to work with our Itsekiri brothers, live together and fight together our common enemies. Any attack on Itsekiri is an attack on the Yoruba Nation’ the group stated.