Information available to 247ureports.com through sources housed in Abuja indicates the President’s executive cabinet may have been unsettled by the sudden hike in petrol prices by the President, Dr. Goodluck Ebelemi Jonathan through an announcement made on the first day of January 2012.
“There is a split within the President’s executive cabinet” stated an authoritative source. A majority of the cabinet members are uneasy over Jonathan’s management of the internal affairs of the Cabinet . Top on the list is the sectionalization of the cabinet team by the President. Information points to Jonathan’s blind embrace of three cabinet members [Okonjo Iweala, Allison Madueke, and Maduakwe] as the principal factor causing the split.
The Presidency had turned its powers to the trio – thus disabling the President into following the dictates of the trio.
Some of the other cabinet members are understood to be unhappy – and have begun ‘talking’ among themselves. Many within the cabinet have complained of not being carried along in the deliberation of policy matters.
On the heels of a fledgling loyalty within the cabinet – the sudden hike in petrol prices – which many within the cabinet were not in-the-know prior to the announcement, precipitated “a protest” within the Jonathan cabinet.
Our sources state that the Attorney General of the Federation, Adoke [SAN] as amongst the aggrieved cabinet members. He recently told our source that “he is not in support of the sudden hike in fuel prices” implying that he may resign if Jonathan decides to stay the course. Other cabinet members have also expressed their displeasure.
A segment of the cabinet are also aggrieved by the rush to set a board to handle the re-investment of the monies to be made from the hike in fuel prices. Ihe two board was set up without consultation with the cabinet members.
The Federal Executive Council [FEC] meeting presided over by President Jonathan today saw glimpses of the unsettled nature of the assembled group. The meeting was a sobering one, according to our source. The members did not talk much but listened to the President as he reeled out palliative measures to placate the Nigerian masses against sudden increase in prices.
Sudanese security officials on Sunday evening confiscated Monday copies of Rai Al Shab,the third newspaper to be suspended in recent months by the government.
Rai Al Shab (The People’s Opinion) is published by the Popular Congress Party (PCP), one of Sudan’s largest opposition parties.
Known for its outspoken editorials and uncompromising journalism, the newspaper has been suspended many times in recent years, most recently from May 2010 to October 2011.
The pro-government Sudanese Media Center (SMC) quoted the head of the Media Department at the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) saying that the newspaper violated Sudan’s “professional and ethical standards,”
The NISS has many journalists last year including nine working with Radio Darfur. Also arrested was Abu Zar Al Ameen, the deputy editor-in-chief of Rai AlShab, who was released after more than a year in detention. The cases provoked an international outcry.
“The officers came to the our premises after 5 pm and they occupied the place; the editor-in-chief asked us to gather our personal belongings and leave,” said Mustafa Ibrahim, one of the journalists working at Rai Al Shab.
Trial
Ibrahim added that at least 15,000 copies of the newspaper were confiscated on Sunday night. In recent months, copies of independent newspapers have been confiscated in an attempt to harm the newspapers that depend on sales since many opposition newspaper struggle to get advertisements.
Last week, a journalist working at the newspaper was called for interrogation at the National Press and Publications Council following two news pieces he published, in November and December respectively.
Still smarting from a certificate scandal, the House of Representative member for Isiukwuato/Umunneochi Federal Constituency, Hon. Nkeiru Onyejiocha is in the news again.
Apparently, Onyejiocha has been in the news in recent times for all the wrong reasons and this time around the people of Isuochi have accused her of masterminding the attempt by armed soldiers to disrupt an annual soccer fiesta in the community simply because it was sponsored by her perceived arch-rival during the 2011 general elections, Chris Odinaka Igwe.
The Chris Odinaka Igwe Football Tournament for Umunneochi Youths is an annual soccer fiesta that is designed to unite kinsmen during the yuletide and help channel the energy of youths towards productive ventures.
With the trophy worth N1m; with added incentives of N50,000 each for every participating community and overseas soccer trials for the Most Valuable Player, community sources told correspondent that the tournament over time has become the centre of activities during the Christmas and New Year celebrations in the area.
However, what transpired last Thursday at the football field of Peace Comprehensive Secondary School , Amuda Isuochi, venue of the tournament reflects the extent politicians could go to demean and discredit their perceived rivals.
Between the hours of 3.30pm and 4pm on Thursday, the 29th of December, 2011; while youths of Ngodo and Amuda villages in Isuochi were getting set to engage themselves in a soccer duel, five truck loads of fully armed, combat-ready soldiers stormed the venue of the tournament in commando style and set about flogging and dispersing members of the community with reckless impunity.
The crowd of villagers who had gathered to watch the football match were forced to flee the match ground.
The villagers however gathered from the soldiers that their representative at the lower chambers of the National Assembly, Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejiocha had mobilized the soldiers to disperse the villagers who had gathered in their hundreds to watch the annual soccer tournament, on the ground that Mrs. Onyejiocha had bought the land around the secondary school including the soccer pitch.
The said claim by Onyejiocha infuriated the youths who regrouped and resisted the soldiers daring them to shoot with such chants as: ‘Kill us for playing football if you can’, ‘Onyejiocha and her likes cannot stop this tournament’, ‘Has football become politics’.
The agitations continued, attracting hundreds of youths until the incident turned into a full-blown protest.
To press home their grievances, the youths stormed the roads barricading the major roads, disrupting traffic flow, turning back vehicles that bore government or political inscriptions and even blocking off the exit of the soldiers who watched helplessly as the incident careened out of control.
According to some of the leaders of the irate youths who spoke to our correspondent, they heaped all the blame for the military action against Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejiocha.
Angry and clutching a palm frond, Udoka Ekenasi who said he hailed from Amuda, Isuochi fumed: “She could not even restrain her desperation to undo Chris Odinaka Igwe whom she robbed of his mandate in the last election in spite of the fact that her own kinsmen of Ngodo, Isuochi were scheduled to play today. Why is she threatened by Igwe’s rising profile in the community? She tried and failed to prevail on her Ngodo kinsmen to boycott the competition, now she thinks soldiers would do it for her. This is our land and we would happily die here rather than allow her to abort the goodwill we share through this annual competition. You can go and tell Onyejiocha, this competition must continue.”
Victor Igwe, a member of the community and brother to the sponsor of the tournament also bared his mind. Said he, “The memories of the last election are still fresh in our mind and we do not want to lose any more lives. If Onyejiocha truly bought a land from the church, she should be able to sort it out with the church and in doing that, there should be no need for brute force but dialogue. Most importantly, it is a civil matter and the military has no business wading into civil disputes. We just want peace to reign in our land.”
Efforts to get reactions from Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejiocha proved abortive as she did not take calls put through to her mobile phone. A text message also sent to her mobile by our reporter was not replied.
On the issue of land ownership, Pastor Emeka Onwuazombe, the District Minister of the United Church of Christ (UCC), owners of the Peace Comprehensive Secondary School where the tournament holds annually said the church is not aware of any sales transaction of land with Mrs. Onyejiocha. He recalled that a former minister of the church who was sacked for misconduct had a private arrangement with Onyejiocha to the effect of leasing the school land to Onyejiocha for five years.
According to Pastor Emeka Onwuazombe, “The deal between the two was not with the consent, knowledge or approval of the church and no payment whatsoever was made to the church. Think of it, our host community gave us the land for free in which we built the church and the school, how can we sell the land. So it is unthinkable for us to sell a land freely given to us by our host community without their consent.”
On the other hand, the Army Commander in charge of the area, General Audu regretted the action of the soldiers, noting that soldiers have no business in civil disputes. The General hinted that he has received information of the incident though no official complaint has been lodged against the said soldiers. He however assured that necessary machinery has already been put in place to unravel the soldiers involved in the act adding that appropriate measures would be taken against any soldier found culpable.
Also commenting on the development, a human right activist, Dr. Jude Ohanele of Development Dynamics condemned in very strong terms the action of the soldiers advocating for punitive measures to serve as a deterrent for other soldiers that may find it pleasurable to delve into political adventurism.
Hear him: “If indeed, Nigerian soldiers allowed themselves to be dragged into civil matters as land disputes, it simply points to the level of idleness, indolence and lack of professionalism on the part of the Nigerian Army. It is a shame that while Nigerians cry out against the rising insecurity in the land to which the security agencies seem clueless, that five truck-loads of soldiers could afford the time of day to attack and intimidate unarmed, harmless, law abiding villagers over unfounded civil claims.”
Mixed reactions have continued to trail the new price regime in the oil sector which came into effect on New Year’s Day, in major cities in Anambra state.
Chief Morris Ebo, the National President of the Fish Farm Estate Developers Association who threw the support of his organization to the new federal government policy wondered why Nigerians always like fighting themselves on new policies irrespective of how well-meaning the intentions were.
According to him, “the subsidy removal will change the lives of an average Nigerian citizen for the better. It will mark the beginning of financial wisdom for the nation.”He noted that all the organs of government that manages its information and publicity should immediately go to work to create enough grassroots awareness. This would enable and prepare Nigerians to adjust themselves to the initial ripples of the effect of the new policy.
He also want the government to come open with the people all the short term projections of the gains of the subsidy removal, including job creations from more refineries to be built and licensed and so on. How the new open market would benefit all in the long run. He strongly believes that the pump price of products would eventually be determined by the market forces based on demand and supply. Whereas the present high prices of N150 and above might end up not being tenable after all due to market forces just like the GSC communication sector.
He therefore urged Nigerians to allow President Goodluck Jonathan and his Economic Team to bring out more information on how the proceeds from the subsidy would be adjusted to the salaries of civil servants and the common man on the street.
He lamented that a lot of damage could have been done in the strike action already declared by the labour before the government effect a one-on-one discussion on it for clarification.
Fr Martin Onukwuba, who is the coordinator of the Justice, Development and Peace Commission (JDPC) of the Catholic Archdiocese of Onitsha, said “as far as I know every government has to subsidize something. United States of America pours money into motor manufacturing while European countries have areas they subsidize too. So if the FG removes the oil subsidy what other area again would he subsidize in? Mr President has lived in Nigeria all these years and has seen the plight of the people. He knows what we know. We do not want to regret voting for his emergence”.
The national coordinator of the National Association on Women and Gender and Education (NAWOPEG), Grace Nnadozie said her group’s apprehension was on the government’s sincerity on what it intends to do with the proceeds of the deregulation. She said it would have been better carried out when all the existing refineries in the country have been put to optimal uses, and all avenues of leakages in the sector tackled.
Okey Onyeka of the Civil Rights Concern described the future as gloomy for the nation as it’s not only through excruciating pains for the masses that the Rev government makes money.
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has sentenced Abdulkadir Ntiem who was prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to seven years imprisonment for defrauding one Mark Anthony Ugochukwu to the tune of N4.5 million (four million, five hundred thousand naira). Ntiem was arraigned on March 2, 2011, with a five count charge before Justice Balkisu Bello Aliyu. According to the prosecution counsel, Fatsuma Mohammed, Ntiem’s ordeal followed a petition to the EFCC by Ugochukwu where he alleged that Ntiem told him he has a land at plot 1127B11 located at Kaura District, Abuja for sale. Ntiem told Ugochukwu that he was working with the Federal Capital Development Authority, FCDA. He produced his supposed FCDA identification card and even took him to FCDA where he showed him a table which he claimed was his. It was after all these that he offered Ugochukwu a forged statutory offer letter. Convinced that Ntiem was a staff of the FCDA, Ugochukwu started paying the agreed sum of N8 million for the land. Ugochukwu gave Ntiem, the sum of N5.5 million as advance payment but at the end of the day, he neither saw the land nor was he refunded his money. All efforts to reach Ntiem on phone proved abortive as his GSM lines were also switched off. In the course of investigation, the EFCC sought from Abuja Geographical Information Service, AGIS, and FCDA authorities the staff status of Ntiem, but both agencies denied having him as a staff. The accused had told the court that the offer letter he gave to the complainant was not forged and that the land existed. “It was the surveyor who identify the land using a G.P.S which is an instrument used by surveyors to locate particular area of land. I got the plot No. 1127 at Kaura District. We agreed on N8 million as the cost of the plot”, he told the court during cross examination. He however admitted that he collected the sum of N4.5 from the complainant. After listening to the prosecution and the defence counsel, the judge ruled that it was her view that the prosecution has proved the case of obtaining by false pretence the sum of N4.5 million against the accused person, purporting to be part payment for the purchase of a parcel of land within Kaura District in Abuja which the accused knew is false; contrary to Section 1 (1)(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Related Offences Act 2006 punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act. The Judge said that Section 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud Act has provided for the minimum sentence of seven years without an option of fine. “Though I have considered the plea of counsel to the accused, by those provisions I cannot give lesser than seven years. Therefore, the convict is sentenced to seven years imprisonment for offence of obtaining money by false pretense contrary to Section 1(1)(a) of Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Offences Act 2006”. The term of imprisonment will however commence from March 29, 2011 when accused was first remanded in prison custody.“I hope the accused will learn from this experience and find a legal means of subsistence instead of crime of deceit”. The judge also ordered the convict to pay Mark Anthony Ugochukwu the sum of N4. 5 million (Four Million Five hundred thousand naira) which is the proceed of the crime.
Wilson UwujarenAg. Head, Media & Publicity4th January, 2012
Barely five days for all the 2011 election cases pending at the Court of Appeal, Benin city, Edo state to elapse, petitioners of such cases, their political parties and supporters who besieged the court this morning have accused the Appeal court President Justice Dalhatu Adamu and judges of frustrating the cases before them.
The appeal cases filed by candidates of states and National Assemblies after the lower tribunal had struck out the cases and by the electoral law; the cases will elapse on January, 9th, 2012 having completed its 180 days as stipulated by the law.
At the court of appeal, Benin City, this morning, petitioners with their political parties and supporters who stormed the court were today disappointed again when they were told the court is billed to hear only the governorship case and every pending states and National Assemblies cases billed for today, January, 4th, 2012 would not be held due to the inability of the Appeal court President to constitute a new panel to hearing the petitions.
It was reliably gathered that after the removal of the former panel led by Justice R. C Agbo, the President has deliberately refused to constitute another panel for the court of Appeal sitting in Benin City.
Following this tactics, impeccable court sources confided in this reporter in Benin that several cases elapsed today because there was no panel to hear the pending appeal cases before the court.
Some petitioners and political parties’ faithful who spoke under anonymity at the court accused the judiciary hierarchy of playing a script written by the ruling party to the detriment of the petitioners. “The Judiciary hierarchy is denying us justice and they are playing a script by the ruling party. We are therefore calling on the Appeal court President to as a matter of importance follow the path of justice and honour to constitute the panel and hear all the pending cases for the interest of peace and justice before they elapse on the 9th, January, 2012. By this action, the Appeal court President is sending a wrong signal to Nigerians.”
Investigations revealed that this is the sixth times the pending cases have suffered a serious setback following the matter and way they are been put off thereby creating the atmosphere for expiration of such cases.
In a press statement issued at the court premises in Benin a group which called it name as “Vanguard for Good Governance” signed by the national President, Comrade Obioma Clement and Secretary General, Comrade Ahmed Danjuma Ahmed and made available to newsmen expressed disappointment over what they called deliberate attempt by the Appeal Court President to deny the petitioners justice and their rights to fair hearing.
While accusing the President of playing pranks, the group urged him to as a matter of urgent and importance constitute the panel for the pending cases to be held. “If nothing is done, then what we are suspecting and been rumoured about the Court president, will be considered to be nothing but the whole the truth. Constitutionally every Nigerians have rights to fair hearing and justice but when this is been threatened then so many waters must have passed under the bridge. By January 9th, 2012 all the pending cases must have elapsed so; we are calling for the immediate constitution of the panel now and let all the cases be tried once and for all.”
Delta State Governor, Dr.Emmanuel Uduaghan has announced that his administration has taken delivery of100 buses and 130 speed boats (water buses) to mitigate the effect of theremoval of fuel subsidy and make transportation cheap for Deltans.
The Governor whodisclosed this yesterday in Asaba while inspecting the buses assured Deltans that the de-regulation in the oilsector would in the long run be better for Nigerians, recalling thecommunication industry deregulation and how Nigerians are better off today withthe GSM telephone system.
He said though thederegulation of the oil sector has some painful challenges, petroleum products wouldat the end be cheap and tolerable
“Let’s look atwhere we are coming from and where we are going and see the difference especiallygiven our experience in the communication industry,” he said.
The Governor expressedthe hope that prices would eventually come down when more refineries are built.
He promised that theState Government would work round the clock to cushion the effects of thederegulation and assured Deltans that transportation would be cheap in thestate since fares are subsidized up to 50% in the state.
Answering questions fromreporters, Governor Uduaghan said that contactors handling projects for thestate have no excuse not being on site after the festive period, addingthat contractors were paid over N15billion last December.
He said because of theencouragement given to the contractors, those who did not go back to site thisweek would be deemed to have abandoned their projects
“I am expecting contractors executinggovernment projects to return to site. We paid them N15billion before Christmasand I believe they have no reason not to go back to site this week,” hesaid.
He explained that themoney paid was to accelerate work adding that since the weather was nowconducive, contractors should on their part meet the targets set.
On the Madalla Churchbombing, he preached love, peace and religious tolerance and assured Nigeriansthat the Federal Government was on top of the security challenges facing thecountry
Dr Uduaghan said therewas nothing that would change the destiny of the country explaining that thedifferent ethnic groups that make up Nigeria were brought together by God for apurpose and so allayed fears of any threat to the nation’s unity.
Armed men from the Lou Nuer group have been marching through Jonglei state in recent weeks
Thousands of youths from a South Sudanese ethnic group which attacked a rival community, reportedly killing at least 150 people, have been repelled by government troops, the UN says.
The UN’s humanitarian co-ordinator in the region, Lise Grande, says 6,000 members of the Lou Nuer ethnic group have left the besieged town of Pibor.
The clashes took place between the Lou Nuer and their rivals, the Murle.
The fighting follows long-running disputes over cattle raids.
As well as those killed, tens of thousands have been displaced in the violence, according to the South Sudan government.
“Pibor is under the full control of the government, and the Lou Nuer have been ordered to return to their homes, and they are starting to do so,” Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin said.
Ms Grande said a decisive event took place on Monday: government troops backed by UN forces repelled an attack on Pibor in Jonglei state by the Lou Nuer ethnic group; shortly after that, she said, the Lou Nuer began to leave the area.
The Lou Nuer had launched an offensive on their rivals from the Murle ethnic group last week, accusing them of stealing cattle.
Ms Grande said damage to Pibor was limited.
However, she said the humanitarian situation for the tens of thousands of people who fled the violence was grim, with the UN and other agencies now organising an emergency programme to help them.
Ms Grande said the government was beginning to deploy 3,000 extra soldiers and 800 police officers to the area.
She also said the Lou Nuer took a lot of cattle with them.
Last August, it was the Murle who attacked them and raided their herds.
Cattle vendettas are common in South Sudan, as are other ethnic and tribal clashes: the UN says some 350,000 people were displaced because of intercommunal violence last year, says the BBC’s Barbara Plett at the United Nations.
This presents a major challenge to the government of the newly independent state, which also faces cross-border tensions with its northern neighbour Sudan.
The clashes began as cattle raids, but have spiralled out of control.
Town burnt
South Sudan is one of the world’s poorest regions – it gained independence from Sudan in July 2011 and has hardly any roads, railways, schools or clinics following two decades of conflict, which have left it awash with weapons.
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir had called on the Lou Nuer to stop their advance and return to their traditional areas.
The Lou Nuer fighters arrived in Pibor on Saturday after marching through Jonglei state in recent weeks, setting fire to homes and seizing livestock.
The entire town of Lukangol was burnt to the ground last week. About 20,000 civilians managed to flee before the attack, but dozens were killed on both sides.
The governor of Jonglei state and the vice-president of South Sudan have been trying to mediate between the rival ethnic groups.
Our attention has been drawn to a publication in the Vanguard newspaper of Thursday, December 8, 2011, page 43 captioned ‘Scientific Perspective of Sapele’ said to be written by one Prof. Jennifer Alao who claimed that her writing stemmed out of a book titled ‘History of Sapele in Scientific Perspective’, alleged to have been authored by ‘Eyebira Agharowa Emmanuel (Honsbira) and Olomu Oghanrandukun Oritseweyinmi (St. Ifa)’ and published by ‘Warri Ancient History and Literary Society’. Apart from the spurious and provocative claim that the Okpe nation is a ‘stateless society’, the writer further claimed maliciously and wrongly that the Itsekiri founded all the major Okpe towns including Sapele, Elume, Mereje, Orerokpe and Aghalokpe. The writer is, however, ignorant that even Onigu Otite, Professor and a foremost political Sociologist, in his anthropological case study of Okpe Kingdom (1973:113), had authoritatively listed all these towns amongst the headquarters of the twelve administrative districts of Okpe Kingdom founded by the descendants of the four founding princes of the Okpe nation.
The Itsekiri’s continued provocation is again manifested by their erroneous claim that the 1942/43 Sapele land case was inconclusive in the Law Court. These claims are indeed sly-dogs to tell to the marines. Chief D.O. Dafinone, in the Vanguard newspaper of December 13, 2011, pages 52 and 53, has provided explicit and incontrovertible evidence of how the Sapele land case was concluded at the High Court of the Warri Judicial Council and the West African Court of Appeal. There is no doubt that the Itsekiri live in Sapele. As to how they came to live in Sapele, both the trial Court as per Justice Jackson and the West African Court of Appeal found that: “After the Nana war which took place in 1894, a large number of Jekkris ran for refuge to Sapele and obtained permission of the Sobos (Sapele Okpe people) to settle, giving customary dashes for the customary privilege”. The verdict of the trial and appellate courts based on this finding is reported in 9 WACA at page 85. The historic verdict that Sapele land is owned by Sapele Okpe people cannot, therefore, be wished away by the Itsekiri.
Besides, Onigu Otite makes it clear that the second largest town in the former Midwestern State, Sapele, belongs to Okpe people and about 1963, the Okpe Kingdom had 150 towns and villages, all founded by the descendants of the four sons of Okpe, namely Orhue, Orhoro, Evbreke and Esezi. If indeed the Itsekiri arrived in the Okpe territory before the Okpe people as Prof. Jennifer Alao claims, where is the history of the warfare between the Okpe and Itsekiri, or of the displacement of the Itsekiri by the Okpe as of that time? How many Itsekiri were in these Okpe towns before the fictitious late arrival of the Okpe, and how were the Itsekiri roots completely expunged from all available historical, legal and administrative records, including oral tradition to prove that these places are not Okpe communities from their origin till date?
It is amazing how certain individuals can simply misuse the human freedom of expression to put up illogical and provocative publications such as this fiction in the media. The reviewer and writers of the publication ought to have presented researched materials to lend credence to their claims of a scientific perspective. We have not seen any such evidence. We have not even heard of, nor seen any scholars who know the reviewer and the writers. We therefore wonder if they are not fictitious, whose intendment is to unwarily spark communal conflagrations between the indigenous Okpe community of Sapele and the Itsekiri people and thereafter disappear into thin air. Which sound professor would put up a scruffy publication, which appears neither a book review nor the draft of a drama? The ‘Warri Ancient History and Literary Society’ quoted as publisher seems to be the sponsor and not a publishing company.
We have made efforts to get copies of the publication and so far found that no such a book was ever published in 2011 as can be inferred in the review by Prof. Alao. We found speculations, however, that it is a mere movie script comprising fiction and imaginations. It seems to us that the Itsekiri have fashioned out this confrontational publication as an evil scheme to instigate crises and communal battle, perhaps because as it is well known to us, they have acquired a huge armoury of guns and other war materials which they wish to try out on their Okpe hosts. It should be noted that it is not our intention to articulate any means of conflict and crisis with the Itsekiri, or to engage them in any battle; we wish to make it clear and to put the records in the public domain that while the Okpe nation maintains critical knowledge and watch of the Itsekiri criminal intent and project in their relations with the Okpe Kingdom, we will continue to sustain our records of peaceful hospitality towards all Nigerians, including the Itsekiri who reside in the two Local Government Areas of Okpe and Sapele in Delta State.
Onigu Otite (1973) wrote about the framework of pluralism and integration as a phenomenon of colonization by which diverse socio-cultural peoples were grouped into one society. This was the experience of the Okpe, Isoko and Urhobo which were grouped and called Sobo. According to Otite, it was on October 1, 1938 that the name ‘Sobo’ or ‘Subou’ was officially changed to Urhobo as the appropriate and desired collective name for the socio-cultural units which used to be independent of one another due to their separate settlements in their present territories. In the same vein, Otite drew reference to the observation of L. N. Bowen, a European explorer who remarked that the Okpẹ were reputed to be the most progressive and best administered ethnic group through their native authority, the Orodje (king) of Okpẹ, and set a good example for the others in the whole of the Western Urhobo Council Area and Warri Province. As a result, ‘Orerokpe the capital of Okpe kingdom, was made the headquarters of Western Urhobo District Council.
From the point of view of linguistics, Talbort, in his book, The Peoples of Southern Nigeria, Volume IV (1926), stated that the earliest of all the Nigerian languages from the 1st millennium B.C. is Ijaw, a relic of pure Negro speech and Edo to which the Okpe, Urhobo, Isoko are associated; and much later in the 2nd millennium B.C. the Itsekiri which was founded by Oginuwa in about 1480 became historically associated with the Yoruba. Historical records and oral tradition state that the earliest Europeans, the Portuguese visited the west coast of Africa and made contact with Benin City in 1485 and traded with the inhabitants of the hinterland, which included Benin, Urhobo, Okpe and Itsekiri.
In oral cultures, musicians are acknowledged historians who keep records of events in musical compositions that are performed and transmitted through various forms of oral literature from generation to generation. In the particular case of Okpe people, igoru being one of their oldest music, according to Idamoyibo (2006) in his in-depth research captured the history that the Itsekiri monarchy migrated from Benin through the waterways to the Itsekiri settlements of Ode Itsekiri (Old Warri) and Koko. In the course of time, Itsekiri merchants and petty business men and women traded with the Okpe and other peoples in market locations by the watersides in Okpe communities like Sapele, Ajaguoyibo, Ajagolo, Elume, Ikeresan (Orhorhomu), Ugbukurusu and Obotie. The penchant for Itsekiri names of waterside market out posts have nothing to do with settlement of Itsekiri traders and ownership of these isolated market locations in Okpe land.
This oral account confirms that the Itsekiri came to the Okpe communities as individual traders who were generously allowed to stay for exchange of commodities. Apart from trading in specific locations on the river banks of Okpe communities, the Itsekiri came to Sapele and some other Okpe communities as refugees of ‘the Nana war’ in the late 19th century; and the Itsekiri refugees paid homage to the Okpe in Sapele and the other Okpe communities. We recall also that when the Itsekiri conducted their warfare with the Ijaw between 1997 and 2003, they sought for refuge in many Okpe communities and they were so provided refuge. As refugees of the Okpe from the time of ‘the Nana war’ to the recent time of ‘the Itsekiri-Ijaw war’, the Itsekiri generally conducted themselves with undue arrogance as they turn around to make claims to the ownership of the territorial asylum. They have shown the same attitudes of making bogus claims to land ownership in places such as Ajalomi in Abraka, Otumara in Okpara and Ugbomoja in Jesse where they also traded with the Urhobo.
It is a known fact that the Itsekiri are opportunists who took advantage of positions that their sons had in the colonial and subsequent administrations even to date to cause conflicts and crises in the Niger Delta region, and which accounts for the number of communal battles and wars they had fought with their neighbouring Urhobo, Ijaw and Okpe. Corroborating this fact, the distinguished historian, Prof. Obaro Ikime (2005) intimated us that the British began penetration into the Urhobo (and Okpe) region from 1896 and sought for assistance of persons who knew about the hinterland peoples and the land. They found some assistants from among the Itsekiri who live at the coast. It was in this way that a few Itsekiri British-appointed political agents found their way into Urhobo land (and Okpe land) during the establishment of British colonial rule.
Obaro Ikime stated further that Chief Dogho, an influential Itsekiri merchant assisted the British to conquer Chief Nana, also an Itsekiri in August 1894, for which he (Dogho) was given several appointments in appreciation. He was appointed president of Benin River Native Court in 1896, British political agent in 1897, permanent president of both the Warri native Court of Appeal in 1914, and Native Authority for the Warri Divisional Province, which covered the territories of the Urhobo, Okpe, Isoko, Ijaw, Ukwani and Aboh ethnic groups. In the 1920s, Dogho began to collect full rents for plots of land in Agbassa (Urhobo). And by 1925, the Urhobo of Agbassa in Warri took Dogho to court, challenging his rights for collecting rents in their own land, but lost the case. By extension of the same act, Chief Dogho instructed the Itsekiri in Sapele to stop paying rents to their Okpe landlords, arguing that Sapele land belonged to the Olu of Itsekiri whom he claimed to represent. The Okpe so resented this action that it resulted into the Sapele land case which the Okpe won in 1943.
Further on how the Itsekiri took advantage of political powers available to them, Prof. Peter Ekeh (1999) wrote that Urhobo and Itsekiri youths in Okere, Warri had a fight on June 4, 1999, which was flashed on the cyberspace that evening as a joint operation between Ijaw and Urhobo in an effort to wipe out the Itsekiri. The Itsekiri Survival Movement directly accused the Urhobo of engaging in “genocide’’ and “ethnic cleansing’’ while the Ugbajo Itsekiri, an aristocratic club of the Itsekiri in the United States, released on the internet and cyberspace the text of a letter it presented at a meeting at the State Department, inviting the United States to intervene in the crisis of the Western Niger Delta of Nigeria. Ekeh concluded that the Itsekiri had often incited government against its neighbouring ethnic groups, thus again attempted to incite the US government against the Urhobo with the accusation on genocide – an unforgivable offence of the 21st Century.
In recent times, we recall how in 2004 the Itsekiri tried to incite the Delta State Government against the Okpe immediately after the grave attack they launched against Ugbukurusu, an Okpe community, because the current Governor of Delta State, an Itsekiri was SSG in the State and since after he became Governor, they have made many attempts to incite the government of the state against the Okpe in attempt to use the contemporary administrative forces to cede all Okpe land to the Itsekiri. We have reliable information that the Itsekiri have a substantial fund in Texas, USA, which they set up over the years with a view to invading their neighbouring communities in order to take over their land. We are aware too that they have utilized this fund to acquire weapons of warfare, stocked in strategic warehouses within and around Okpe territory, which they intend to try out in scuffle, with the hope that the Delta State government would support them with public funds, security forces and other resources.
Having raised these observations, we hereby call on the Itsekiri monarch and Itsekiri Leaders of Thought and the Itsekiri Establishment, as well as the Delta State government to call to order those who are contriving this present evil of deliberate communal provocation in Sapele in particular and in Okpe Kingdom in general. It is pertinent to remind the Itsekiri elders and leaders that, over the years, the Okpe had provided them refuge at times of their battles and needs. There is the fact of complexity of inter-marriages and family networks between Okpe and Itsekiri. Less than two years ago, (Vanguard: 1st March 2010. P. 29), an Okpe civil society group, Okpe Scholars Association Worldwide, raised very pertinent issues and questions for the Itsekiri people, but which they have not addressed; and now the resurgence of fundamental matters of communal provocation.
The issues and questions include: Do we now bequeath dispute, warfare and mortal enmity to our children? Is it because the Head of the Executive, the Security Agencies and the Judiciary of the state today are of Itsekiri extraction that the Itsekiri trouble makers have suddenly waken up with schemes of battle and bogus claims to ownership of Okpe land and communities? Over the years, until the Itsekiri began to occupy these positions, the Okpe and Itsekiri have lived together relatively peacefully without the intoxication and arrogance of aggressive attacks on the Okpe Kingdom by the Itsekiri. Be it known that the Okpe people are critically aware of this new development. We are in no doubt that these false and bogus claims of land ownership are meant to provoke the Okpe people and lure them into the type of conflict, killing and destruction which Nigerians witnessed recently in the Itsekiri and Ijaw conflict.
The Okpe will however continue to maintain peace and order, and not start any crisis or battle with the Itsekiri; but if the Itsekiri think that intensive crises or battle is in their best interest, then let them start it.
We therefore aver that “Enough is Enough” and the Me-Generation Group in Itsekiri Lands are hereby warned that the Battle for their Souls is less more difficult to win than the Battle of their Mortal Men.
This is to bring to your notice the resolution of Ogbunigwe Ndigbo, an Igbo revolutionary movement, in response to the state of the Nigeria nation.
We have watched with pains in our hearts the massacre of our people in the northern part of Nigeria and it is obvious that the federal government is not capable of protecting the lives and property of Ndigbo. The recent Christmas bombings has strengthened our resolve to raise arms and defend our people.
Ogbunigwe Ndigbo is a counter terrorist group sworn to the protection of Ndigbo and to avenge any drop of blood of our brothers shed any where in Nigeria. We will use extreme violence to protect ourselves where necessary. We have watched the killing of our people all over the North by Boko Haram terrorist group and we are declaring war on this group and any other group that sheds the blood of our people. We are not new in the act of defending our people, we have done it before and this time will not be an exception.
We are going to target the sponsors of this inhumanity against our people, we will target their economic interest and their families. We will use every means possible to kill them and their corroborators even if those corroborators are our people. Ndigbo will not continue to be guinea pigs in a country where we have labored so much to build. Enough is enough. We have resolved to make this sacrifice even with our lives for the safety and freedom of our children unborn.
We have lined up our action for 2012 to demonstrate our willingness and ability to protect and defend our people. We will observe a full month of non action in January but our action plan for the month of February is as follows:
Feb 1. All Igbos nationwide will boycott the purchase and eating of beef until Feb 10. This is to demonstrate our economic importance to our oppressors
Feb 13. All Igbos all over the country will close shops and abstain from work to demonstrate our total disenchantment over the Christmas day bombing.
Feb 14th. We will detonate a bomb in a safe place within the country. This is to avoid casualties and the killing of innocent people. Subsequently this bombs will be used to target the financial infrastructures of the sponsors of Boko Haram and their immediate families.
With this notice, we are giving all northern moslems residing in the South East a two weeks ultimatum to leave the South East as we can no longer guarantee the safety of such tenants in the face of this senseless killing of our people. We want to remind the Boko Haram group that nobody has a monopoly of violence.
We will continue to operate underground and will return fire for fire with any arm of the government that interferes with our program. We have been patient in for a long time and watch the security operatives treat violent boko haram members with kid gloves and diplomatic negotiations while non violent groups in the East like MASSOB is being hounded into detention and killed daily. He who makes peaceful resolutions impossible makes violent resistance inevitable. We will stop at nothing to redeem the labors and the blood of our past heroes. Until the last man and the last pint of blood NO RETREAT NO SURRENDER
General Red Devil Nwokolo
Commander of the peoples army
