The Nigerian Human Rights Community (NHRC), a coalition of 130 civil society and community-based groups across Nigeria, has asked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to address the historic injustice faced by one million Itsekiri people in Nigeria.
The Itsekiri are a minority oil-producing people in Delta State who have no voices and no one to uplift them from national isolation fuelled by historical injustice.
In a letter to President Tinubu, they said the Itsekiri people in Delta and Edo States produce 30 per cent of Nigeria’s total oil output. Yet, they remain the most oppressed and marginalised oil-producing community in Nigeria.
The group said the indigenous environment of Itsekiri territories has been devastated due to years of oil exploration and a lack of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), which impoverishes the land, the people and the environment.
The statement, signed by the group’s Secretary, Abiola Adeleke, the Director of Publicity, Mr Taiwo Adeleye, the northern coordinator, Mallam Yao Abdullahi, and the Niger-Delta Coordinator, Steven Ekong, said the Itsekiri had been subjected to the worst form of deprivation for many decades.
The group called on President Tinubu to listen to the pains and agonies of Itsekiri. It should compensate them for enduring the hardship without resorting to violence or armed conflict, adding that President Tinubu needs to prove that ‘diplomacy and peaceful agitation have rewards in Nigeria.’
The NHRC said, ‘Itsekiri produces 30 percent of Nigerian oil, but in the distribution of natural resources, it is at the receiving end of the stick.
The Federal Government’s presence in Itsekiri land is almost nil, and it boycotts Itsekiri when it comes to Federal appointments, including those in the smallest unit of government institutions.
