FG yet to address our forefathers’ fear of oppression NAIG … – Vanguard

By Aniema Umoh

WARRITHE National Association of Itsekiri Graduates, NAIG, has said the Federal Government is yet to address fears of Itsekiri forefathers against oppression, economic and political marginalisation by the federal, state governments and our hostile neighbours, several decades after the Itsekiri Leaders of Thought, ILOT, raised the concerns to the Federal Government.

NAIG recalled that ILOT had raised the fears in a letter addressed to the then Military Head of State, General Murtala Muhammed in 1976.

The Itsekiri graduates body in a statement titled: The visit of the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo to the Niger Delta: Our Position, noted that their fears manifested in the form of the Warri crisis between 1997 and 2003 on the guise of purported relocation of a local government headquarters.

NAIG claimed that the same people that carried out a genocidal attack on the Itsekiri people are threatening war over a genuine call by the Olu of Warri, concerning land under his over-lordship and cited several court cases which conferred the ownership of the land, where the National Maritime University, NMU, in Warri South-West Local Government Area is situated on the Omadino people, who are Itsekiri.

The statement, signed by three members of the associations publicity committee, Messrs Solomon Sholuwa, Dede Shuwa and Toju Apoh, backed the Olu of Warris demand for the establishment of a Naval Base in the Escravos-Ogheye Waterways, dredging of Escravos Bar and Koko River, revitalisation of Warri Port, commencement of construction work at the Gas Revolution Industrial Park, GRIP, project at Ogidigben as well as the Koko-Ogheye-Lekki Road and Omadino Escravos Highway.

While noting that these projects had the potential of creating over 300,000 jobs for Niger Delta youths at the construction stages, NAIG said: We want sustenance of peace in the Niger Delta as this will help allay the fears of multinationals who have refused to relocate their corporate headquarters to their areas of operation despite the call by Federal Government under the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

Continued here:

FG yet to address our forefathers' fear of oppression NAIG ... - Vanguard