Ijaws accuse Buhari’s aide of inciting another ethnic crisis in Warri

The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide, has accused Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu of capable of inciting ethnic crisis in Delta State with his utterances.

The group in a statement by its president, Pereotubo Oweilaemi, stated that the same issues which sparked the Warri crisis under the Sani Abacha junta, is what Shehu is throwing up with his recent utterances.

Oweilaemi said the “rather annoying and provocative umbrage” by Shehu, during an interview session on Channels TV on Sunday that the Itsekiri group is larger than the Ijaw is a “baseless misrepresentation of facts ostensibly to incite the Ijaws against our Itsekiri brothers”.

The statement read in part, that “There is no iota of truth whatsoever in Garba Shehu’s wrong placement of facts and figures in the Delta State population. As a public figure, he should be guided by the available and undisputed official datas within his domain other than to talk like a novice in government.

Read also: TARABA: Unknown gunmen abduct lawmaker

“Going by either the 2006 census figures or the available voting datas, the Ijaw ethnic group is the second largest ethnic group in Delta State. The Ijaw nation as the 4th largest ethnic group in Nigeria has a population of fourteen million people which constitutes 10% of the Nigerian population. The Ijaws are even more populous than the Fulani ethnic group who constitutes 9% of the Country’s population.

“In Delta State, the Ijaws have three homogeneous local government areas that are densily populated, while they are in majority in two other local government areas they shared with the Itsekiri ethnic group. The Ijaws are in six local government areas, while the Itsekiris are just in three local government areas which they shared two with Ijaw people and the other one with Urhobo and Ijaw.

“How on earth do people who are just in three local government areas and who do not have any single homogeneous local government area become more populated than people who are in six local government areas with three homogeneous local government areas?

“Garba Shehu should know that it was this same callous and incisive decision of the Abacha Government that caused the bloody Warri crisis. His statement on the Channels TV about the Ijaw and Itsekiri population has a dangerous implication to the relative peace we are enjoying. Such unguided utterances by a public figure like Garba Shehu may spark off another ethnic crisis in the Niger Delta.

“For the sake of peace in the region, we call on him to retract his statement about the Ijaw and Itsekiri population in Delta State with immediate effect. If he wants to learn, he should not use Delta State or any part of the Niger Delta region for his internship course. We warn him to stay clear of Delta State for the sake of our peaceful coexistence”.

 

RipplesNigeria… without borders, without fears

Click here to join the Ripples Nigeria WhatsApp group for latest updates.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now