By Godwin Oghre

Sapele—Niger Delta Peace Ambassador, NDPA, has called on the warring Ijaw and Itsekiri communities to sheathe their swords to enable the Federal Government perform the groundbreaking of the $16 billion Export Processing Zone, EPZ.

In a statement by its National Coordinator, Chief Tonwei Tortor, the group called for ethnic harmony between the Ijaw of Gbaramatu/Ogulagha and Itsekiri of Ugborodo, in Warri South-West Local Government Area, Delta State.

It urged the leaders of both ethnic nationalities to give peace a chance in order to ensure the smooth take off of the project which it said would boost President Goodluck Jonathan’s transformation agenda and the ‘Delta Beyond oil’ initiative of Delta State Government.

The group said that those saying that the president was playing ethnic politics with the project were wrong, noting that it was the bitterness of the ethnic groups that was actually stalling the take off of the project.