BY EGUFE YAFUGBORHI

WARRI—LEADERS in Delta South senatorial district, yesterday faulted the approval to split Delta State into a new Delta State and Anioma State by the ongoing national conference.

Speaking to Vanguard in Warri, Chairman, Ijaw, Isoko and Itsekiri Leaders Forum, Mr. Edward Ekpoko, said the three Delta South ethnic groups are opposed to the creation of a new Delta because it was not conceived with the approval of all Delta people.

Ekpoko, who is also Secretary, Itsekiri Leaders of Thought, said: “There was no consultation with anybody. You cannot talk of state creation without talking to the people who are to be part of the new state.  As Itsekiris, we have disowned our Professor Yomere, who took part in that narrow-minded proposal because as a man who claims to represent Itsekiris, he was not right to commit us to a project for which we were not consulted.

“What Professor Oyovbaire and others proposed was not entirely new. When Senator Fred Brume was alive, he led a consultation of leaders of all ethnic groups  in Delta State for the same purpose. Sensitive questions were raised and it appeared that the Urhobos were in a hurry and the move was deadlocked.