IJAW FOUNDATION

A NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION ESTABLISHED IN 2003 

September 10, 2007

PRESS RELEASE

A CALL FOR URGENT ACTION TO END THE REIGN OF EVIL AND MAYHEM IN RIVERS STATE

We are shamed, anguished and appalled, beyond description, at the Reign of Evil and Violence in Rivers State; especially the extremely tragic, terrible, abominable and protracted mayhem in Port Harcourt in August 2007, which claimed numerous precious and innocent lives. We are very concerned about the continuing state of hyper-insecurity with wanton bloodshed in Rivers State and want true peace to be restored in the erstwhile tranquil state.

Sending a military armada to various Rivers towns and villages to hunt down suspected cultists is not the solution, particularly because numerous innocent citizens are being killed in the process. The Niger Delta, especially Rivers State is not at war with the Nigerian State. As such, a police operation to flush out miscreants and criminals must not be turned into a deliberate and calculated military onslaught to annihilate certain ethnic nationalities of Nigeria. This military persecution can only be categorized as ethnic cleansing. When thousands of Southerners living in the northern parts of Nigeria were slaughtered in recent years, neither bombs nor helicopter gunships were used to kill the Hausa-Fulani and other Northern Nigerian miscreants and criminals. During the recent mayhems in Lagos, especially during the active period of OPC when numerous Hausa-Fulanis and Yorubas fought and killed each other, no helicopter gunships or bombs were employed by the Nigerian Security Forces to eliminate the miscreants and criminals. In contradistinction, it is now the discriminatory, oppressive and unacceptable official policy of the Nigerian government and military to use bombs and helicopter gunships indiscriminately to kill and maim in Niger Delta towns and villages at peacetime under a civilian government. The extrajudicial killing of suspected miscreants without trial is an egregious violation of due process as well as an unconscionable abuse of human rights.

 To proffer an effective solution, a proper diagnosis must be made. It is a well known fact that the perennial Rivers State Crisis has been caused by the immediate past governor of the state, Dr. Peter Odili who created, sponsored and operated Killer Squads and cult groups to terrorize, maim and kill perceived political enemies to secure his malevolent, evil, tyrannical, selfish, kleptomaniac and destructive rule over the erstwhile tranquil Rivers State. Peter Odili’s Reign of Terror in Rivers State caused the decimation of several Rivers State towns and villages such as Buguma, Tombia, Okrika, Kula, Abua and Bakana as well as the deaths of over one hundred thousand hapless Rivers State citizens including Dr. Marshall Harry, Chief Alfred K. Dikibo and other prominent citizens of the state.

Even Chief Rufus Ada George, the respected and acclaimed former governor of Rivers State and Peter Odili’s political benefactor was not spared the fangs of Peter Odili’s Reign of Terror. He was viciously persecuted and hounded out of the state by the evil and ungrateful Peter Odili.

Peter Odili received more than N300 billion from the Federal Government for the One-City-State of Rivers State from 1999 to 2007. Port Harcourt, which is the only city in Rivers State has no electricity, no running water, no drainage system, no functional hospitals, no functional schools and of course no industries to employ the young, hungry and teeming youths of Rivers State. Rather than creating meaningful and functional communities in Rivers State, especially Port Harcourt, Peter Odili went on a looting binge as evidenced by this report with the following URL:  http://www.chatafrikarticles.com/articles/379/1/Interim-Report-of-the-EFCC-on-Governor-Peter-Odili/Page1.html

Instead of providing meaningful jobs for the teeming youths of Rivers State, Peter Odili turned them into armed hoodlums and cultists with monthly payments of hundreds of millions of naira from the Rivers State government treasury to protect him while he was the despotic governor of the State, as well as to foist his puppet, Celestine Omehia, who was not even a candidate at the gubernatorial primaries, to succeed him as the de facto governor of Rivers State. Celestine Omehia, as one of the principal officers of Peter Odili’s administration and Peter Odili’s personal confidante, is equally culpable for the terror and mayhem that Peter Odili’s evil political machinery has visited upon Rivers State since 1999.

Being Peter Odili’s handpicked governor who was forcefully imposed on Rivers People, Celestine Omehia’s governorship of Rivers State is simply and truly an extension of Peter Odili’s atrocious eight–year governorship reign over the state. Celestine Omehia has shamelessly continued Odili’s policy of robbing the Rivers people by expropriating the financial resources of the state through the award of highly questionable contracts to non-indigenes thereby depriving the Rivers people of economic empowerment and livelihood.

 Peter Odili gave the contracts for building the Rivers State House of Assembly (about N4.5 billion), the Rivers State Judiciary Complex (about N3 billion) and the renovation of the Rivers State secretariat to one Patrick Sule Ugboma of Anambra State, a non-indigene of Rivers State. Now, Peter Odili’s stooge, Celestine Omehia has awarded a N7 billion contract to the same Patrick Sule Ugboma to build a new shopping mall in Port Harcourt. These actions of the previous and present Rivers State Governors show their disdain for Rivers State indigenous contractors and youths who they feel are good candidates for armed cultism and hooliganism but not for construction contracts and jobs.

Very importantly, it has also been established that the recent mayhem in Port Harcourt was a ventilation of the grievances and anger of cult groups over the non-payment of their monthly subventions by the Peter Odili/Celestine Omehia government that had sponsored and hired them!

Furthermore, it is now a well-known fact that some Legislators and Representatives of Rivers State at the Federal, State and Local Levels are not only Cult Members but also sponsors of various cults to protect them and keep them in Power.

Under these circumstances, it is evidently clear that Dr. Peter Odili, Mr. Celestine Omehia and some Rivers State Representatives and Legislators at the Federal, State and Local levels constitute the principal fomenters of the current Rivers State Crisis and mayhem. Ipso facto, the Celestine Omehia’s administration of Rivers State has no iota of legitimacy or moral authority to resolve the Rivers State Crisis and restore peace to the state.

Celestine Omehia’s plan to demolish the waterfront settlements, ostensibly to rid Port Harcourt City of cultists is dishonest, unwise, insensitive, callous and mischievous. The plan is misguided because cultists and hoodlums exist and operate in numerous communities in Rivers State and throughout Nigeria, and not exclusively in the Port Harcourt City waterfront settlements. Furthermore, the demolition of the waterfront settlements will render more than a million impoverished Rivers State citizens homeless thereby precipitating a monumental humanitarian/refugee crisis, which will greatly exacerbate the already terrible state of pervasive criminal activity, insecurity and episodic mayhem.  

Ijaw Foundation, a platform for collective action by all Ijaws and all Ijaw organizations in the Diaspora and the Ijaw homeland, hereby calls for the immediate implementation of an urgent plan of action to end the Reign of Evil and Mayhem in Rivers State. In this regard, Ijaw Foundation calls on the Yar’Adua/Jonathan federal government of Nigeria to act with utmost urgency as follows:

• Appoint a neutral, interim, Civilian Administrator, who is a non-indigene of Rivers State, to administer the state until peace is restored to the state and a new governor is duly elected by means of an open, democratic, free and fair election that is devoid of fraud, intimidation and violence.

• Establish an independent Commission of Inquiry to find out the root causes of the Rivers State Crisis and mayhem by identifying the members and sponsors of the rival cult groups and killer squads in the state, particularly culpable persons amongst the officers of the Rivers State government, Rivers State federal legislators, members of the Rivers State House of Assembly and Rivers State local government councilors, and prescribe punishment for culpable persons as well as prescribe strategies to eliminate cultism and cult-related violence in the state.

• Arrest and prosecute Dr. Peter Odili and other former/current officers of the Rivers State government, and Rivers State Legislators at the Federal, State and Local levels, who are culpable for the heinous crimes against the people of Rivers State. In addition, remove all stumbling blocks that have prevented the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from arresting and prosecuting Dr. Peter Odili and other former/current officers of the Rivers State government who have relegated the good people of Rivers State to agonizing poverty, destitution, despair and anarchy through their looting of the Rivers State treasury with unspeakable selfishness, greed, impunity, heartlessness and unbridled passion.

• Disallow the illegitimate and felonious Celestine Omehia-led Rivers State government from demolishing the Port Harcourt City waterfront settlements; ensuring that only the neutral, interim, Civilian Administrator of the state and/or subsequent legitimate government of the state will have the authority and responsibility for revamping and improving the various Port Harcourt City waterfront settlements with a view to ensuring that the current waterfront dwellers are not displaced but rather provided with affordable decent housing.

• Facilitate, through the Elections Tribunal, an expeditious, open, fair and just judicial review of the infamous “non-elections of April 2007 in Rivers State” that resulted in the unacceptable emergence of Celestine Omehia as the governor of Rivers State.

• Finally, terminate immediately all acts of genocide and extrajudicial killing of the oppressed, impoverished and defenseless people of Rivers State in particular and the Niger Delta in general; by the Nigerian security forces through the use of helicopter gunships and bombs at the pretext of flushing out miscreants and criminals. The Rivers or Niger Delta people are not at war with Nigeria. The unconscionable acts of genocide and brazen abuse of human rights being perpetrated against the Niger Delta people must stop immediately.

  In the strongest terms, Ijaw Foundation condemns the selfish, mindless, shameless and dishonorable Ijaw political office holders, elders, youth activists and traditional rulers who have abominably betrayed the survival, security, welfare and aspirations of the Ijaw Nation at the altar of ephemeral and damnable self-aggrandizement. Some Ijaws have even condescended to such abysmal ungodliness and depravity that they would receive money from the merchants of evil to kill their fellow Ijaws and destroy their own Ijaw towns and villages! How sad!! How tragic!!! In Ijaw culture, it is an abomination to shed innocent blood and it is more so an abomination to shed the blood of fellow Ijaws. We call on all such transgressors to repent of their abominable sins and nefarious actions, and cleanse and rededicate themselves to the timeless Ijaw Heritage of Righteousness. As Ijaws, as was frequently emphasized by our late Maestro and King of Highlife Music, Cardinal Jim Rex Lawson in his songs, we have always affirmed righteousness and the inevitable judgement of Tamuno (Almighty God) by proclaiming: Ebi miyenbo ebi mi obo la, sei miyenbo sei mi obo la.

In this regard, once again, Ijaw Foundation calls on all our Ijaw Rights Activists to eschew self-destructive factionalism and work together in indestructible solidarity and sincerity of purpose to actualize the ultimate goal of the noble Ijaw Struggle for Self Determination, socioeconomic justice, environmental protection and survival.

We condemn and reject the de facto State of Emergency in Port Harcourt which serves the selfish, parochial and diabolical interests of Peter Odili, Celestine Omehia and their stranglehold on Rivers State. We urge President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Vice President Goodluck Jonathan not to allow themselves, by omission or commission, to be accomplices of the Reign of Evil, Tyranny, Oppression, Injustice and Kleptomania in Rivers State, which if not stopped portend grave and calamitous consequences that will overwhelm the capacity of the Nigerian State to control.

We pray for God’s grace and wisdom to guide and enable the Yar’Adua administration to act righteously in the interest of peace and progress of Rivers State and Nigeria.

Signed: 

Ijaw Foundation Board of Directors:

Dr. Ebipamone N. Nanakumo, President

Mr. Patterson Ogon, Vice President

Mr. Lincoln Snithers, Secretary

Mr. Dawari Longjohn, Treasurer

Mr. Benaebi Benatari, Member

 Signed on behalf of the Ijaw Foundation Board of Directors:

Dr. Ebipamone N. Nanakumo

President, Ijaw Foundation Board of Directors

549 LEFFERTS AVENUE, BROOKLYN, NY 11225, USA* Phone & Fax: (718) 778-0536*

Website: www.ijawfoundation.org

Ijaw Foundation is a charitable nonprofit organization with Section 501 (c) (3) Tax Exempt Status granted by the United States Internal Revenue Service.