A vibrant Itsekiri socio-cultural group, Itsekiri Patriotic Alliance, IPA has condemned a publication by the Gbaramatu Traditional Council of Chiefs on the naming of the Export Processing Zone, EPZ after Ogidigben, describing the publication as “selfishly driven, fraught with lies, cheap blackmail and a calculated attempt to incite crisis in Warri”.
The Itsekiri Patriotic Alliance, IPA in a statement signed by its Chairman and Secretary, Messrs Erefoluwa Keka and Gbemi Ajagbe, declared that the one-page advertorial dated Friday June 6, 2014 and signed by seven signatories, including Chief S.A. Etoromi is “provocative, unnecessary and one that takes the mind of Progressive Itsekiris and Ijaws to the dark days of Warri crisis”.
According to IPA, the Gbaramatu Traditional Council of Chiefs in an attempt to curry President Goodluck Jonathan to fall for cheap ethnic sentiment deceived the general public by claiming that major part of the land billed for the legacy EPZ project are part of Gbaramatu Kingdom.
The Itsekiri patriots noted that threats by the Gbaramatu Chiefs to resist President Goodluck Jonathan from performing the ground breaking ceremony of the Ogidigben EPZ is “not just unfortunate but one that undermines the office of the President”, warning that no group or ethnic nationality has monopoly of violence.
IPA averred that on no account will the Itsekiri ethnic nationality allow the change of the name of Ogidigben EPZ project under any guise.
The Itsekiri group alleged that the advertorial “exposes the greed on the part of the Gbaramatu Chiefs after the ground breaking ceremony of Nigeria Maritime University and NIMASA Shipyard/Dockyard in Gbaramatu by President Goodluck Jonathan was treated like an Ijaw republic affair without involving other neighbouring ethnic nationalities like Itsekiri”.
The Gbaramatu Traditional Council of Chiefs had in an open letter to President Goodluck Jonathan published in the Vanguard Newspaper of Friday June 6, 2014 called for the re-naming of Ogidigben EPZ, threatening to resist its ground breaking ceremony if their demand is not heeded to.
Copyright: Fresh Angle International (www.freshangleng.com)
ISSN 2354 - 4104
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