By Chancel Sunday

The Pere of Kerebiri-Mein kingdom in Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta State, HRM (Barr) Godspower Oporomo, has assured his subjects that victory and freedom from oppression were certain as Kerebiri-Mein remained an Ijaw kingdom and had never been part of Benin Kingdom.

Oporomo gave the assurance at the occasion of his fifth coronation anniversary at Bomadi, yesterday, noting that God did not support injustice and oppression and urged his subjects to be strong and prayerful.

He said the oppression meted out to Kerebiri-Mein Kingdom for decades by her sister kingdom, Akugbene-Mein Kingdom, working hard to frustrate them from government recognition, was unjust and uncalled for, stressing no Ijaw kingdom could exercise lordship over another Ijaw kingdom.

He said: “we owe our survival and existence to the Almighty God in the face of naked oppression and harassment to deprive us of our constitutional right of free assembly and association as enshrined in Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“We’ve endured the provocative attitude of Akugbene-Mein Kingdom on litigations and the way cases are transferred from one court to the other outside our jurisdiction without regards to fairplay, and I called on the state government to be up and doing in this case.

“This same method of arraignment and prosecution was meted out to our predecessors and judgement was delivered in our favour in 1983, where it’s clearly stated that Kerebiri-Mein is different from Akugbene-Mein, yet, we’re going over the same circle of torment.

“Kerebiri-Mein land is Ijaw and never been part of Benin Kingdom because we’ve never been conquered and I called on all sons and daughters of Kerebiri-Mein to be law-abiding, be strong and prayerful as victory is certain”.