Ijaw militants not responsible for attacks in S-West – DESOPADEC Director

By Victtor Ahiuma-Young
Asaba — CONCERNED leaders of Ijaw nation have expressed worries over reports, alleging that Ijaw militants were responsible for recent attacks in the South-West, saying that the reports were misleading and aimed at destroying the long-standing good relationship between the Yoruba and Ijaw ethnic nations.

Executive Director (Projects), Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC, Mr. Phillip Gbasin, who spoke in Warri, Delta State, said:  “How can you call people that are purely into criminal oil bunkering business Ijaw militants so you can incite the Yoruba people against Ijaw people? That is very wrong. You cannot catch an Igbo armed robber in Lagos and you say Igbo militant or you catch a Yoruba armed robber in Delta State and you say Yoruba militants are now attacking Urhobo people? That is very wrong and people need to be educated on this issue. As one who lived in Lagos before 1999 and still follow events in Lagos, I can authoritatively say that the said crisis in the South-West was as a result of disagreements between illegal oil bunkerers.”

The Ijaw leader said that the  O’dua People’s Congress, OPC, was  first conceived and initiated by Dr. Frederick Fasehun at an Ijaw National Congress, INC, meeting in Yenagoa, Beyalsa State, which he attended on the invitation of his school mate, late Dr. Engurube, then Secretary of INC.

“The OPC was formed in Yenagoa and because of that, the cordial relationship between the Yoruba and the Ijaws deepened. So, it is wrong and deliberate manipulation by some people to call those criminals Ijaw militants.  Ijaw people have been with the Yoruba people in Ajegunle for hundreds of years and they have never claimed they own the place,” Mr. Gbasin added.