A rights activist, Chief Rita Lori-Ogbebor, has cautioned the federal and Delta State governments to ignore the Ijaw people’s demand for the delineation of wards in the Warri Federal Constituency to avoid anarchy.
The activist made this call in a signed statement, copy of which was made available to newsmen in Lagos, just as she charged the Ijaw to obey the constitutional provisions of 10 wards per local government in the country.
Lori-Ogbebor reiterated that Warri Kingdom belongs to Itsekiri, recalling that the history of Urhobo and Ijaw fighting the Itsekiri is very historical indeed but quickly pointed out that the Itsekiri had tried to avoid such being people who don’t want violence and were law-abiding.
“The history of Urhobo and Ijaw fighting the Itsekiri is very historical indeed but the Itsekiri have tried, especially because they are people who don’t want violence.
“They believe that if you beat the Itsekiris, the only place they can run to is the law court, which they have been doing. The reason is that the Itsekiris are the owners of Warri and it is called Warri Kingdom.
“And all the legal judgments have proved beyond reasonable doubt that Itsekiris are owners of Warri. They have attacked the Olu of Warri in several judgments from the lowest court in our land to the highest court and that case has been settled.
“But this seems to give our neighbours nightmares and they cannot accept it. So, they try to attack us in every possible way. They go legally and legally we have won all the cases.’’
“Now they are beating us to stupor and they believe the Itsekiris will not fight because they want peace. So that is violence and that violence is telling a lot on us,” Lori-Ogbebor.
Lori-Ogbebor said she was raising an alarm now because there is a case going on where the Ijaws were asking for creation of what she described as illegal wards, saying that the only way to know best about these illegal wards which had been created for them a long time ago “is to go to court.”
