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If Pushed To The Wall, Ijaw Republic Will Be Declared – INC President
Published
4 years agoon
By
Editor
INC Meeting With Buhari Didn’t Compromise Ijaw Agenda – Prof Okaba
Prof. Benjamin Okaba, President, Ijaw National Congress (INC) has said that Ijaw Republic will be declared should the Ijaw nation be pushed to the wall.
Okaba, who made the assertion on Saturday in an interview in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, said he made it clear to President Buhari during their last (INC leaders) meeting with Mr President that the minimum conditions that could guarantee their continued existence in Nigeria as true federalism, justice, equity and fairness in the country.
He added that the INC leadership meeting with Mr President does not in anway compromised the Ijaw nation agitations for true federalism, justice, equity and fairness in the country.
READ ALSO: Diri To INC Leadership: Build Bridges Among Ijaw, Address Nation’s Challenges
The INC president spoke against the backdrop of insinuations by some aggrieved Ijaw leaders, including a prominent activist, Ms Annkio Briggs, that the INC executives that visited Buhari betrayed and misrepresented the Ijaw cause.
“I think we are all one, so I would not want to take issues with Ankio Briggs. She has been a comrade in the struggle. I would rather say there was a little gap in communication. The reality is that we spoke the Ijaw cause and Ijaw agenda, which is self-determination. Our speech was fully published on that. I challenge anybody to go through it.
“The whole insinuation is a clear issue of misunderstanding by some persons. Maybe by the time Briggs made the press statement, she had not read the speech or maybe she only relied on extract that was made public by the media to the Federal Government. Thereafter, we have been able to address the issues and I think we are on the same page,” he said.
While noting that they did not regret seeing the President, the INC President sais the meeting afforded them the opportunity to present their positions on the Nigeria project and the conditions to guarantee peaceful coexistence.
READ ALSO: Presidential Amnesty Boss To INC Leadership: Adopt New Approach For N’Delta Devt
Okaba noted: “We did not betray the Ijaw cause, we have never betrayed the Ijaw cause and we are still on course to make sure that the Ijaw agenda is perfectly actualised in good time. Strategically, we don’t want to turn the Ijaw nation prematurely into a war zone. That is why we emphasise on strategy and on peace.
“We know what is happening in other tribes. The majority of the Ijaw believe that the way to go now through negotiation. That is why we are placing emphasis on peaceful and legal strategies to self-determination.
“We gave minimum conditions to Mr President that until the conditions of true federalism, non-balkanisation of Ijaw nation and the creation of additional states and others are met, we no longer feel safe and happy with the Nigeria project.
“And that if we are pushed to the wall, the Ijaw Republic will be declared. We used that expression pointedly. We also said that we can never be a part of any other Republic that has been declared.
READ ALSO: Insecurity: Don’t Take Our Silence For Weakness, Ijaw Elders Warn FG
“We respect the integrity, the interests of other people, we sympathise with many persons that wish to do so but don’t make Ijaw part of it.”
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Tension As Unknown Gunmen Kill Police Informant In Imo Community
Published
4 months agoon
April 25, 2025By
Editor
By Qosim Sulaiman
Palpable tension engulfed the residents of Nkwogwu community, Aboh Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State following the killing of an elderly man, Pa Albert Nwanchukwu, believed to be a police informant.
The assailants, numbering about eight, who reportedly stormed the home of the late Nwanchukwu at about 10pm on Tuesday, 22 April, 2025, were said to have met him where he was relaxing in his compound and immediately opened fire on him.
According to our source who pleaded anonymity, before his assassination, the late Nwanchukwu, had reportedly went to a police station in the locality to inform them of the activities of the gunmen, just as he pleaded to the police to get them arrested.
Our source disclosed that the late Nwanchukwu never knew that some policemen are accomplished in the act, adding that the policemen no doubt informed the gunmen who in anger came and killed him.
READ ALSO: Again Unknown Gunmen Kill One In Imo, Set Govt Vehicle Ablaze
Our source narrated: “They were about eight in number. They came with different weapons – guns, machetes. They were all masked except their leader.
“It was late but the floodlight from the streetlight was bright. They drove dangerously and went straight to Mr Albert Uwandu Nwachukwu house. The man was relaxing in the front of his house. Immediately they saw him, they opened fire,” he died on the spot”, an eyewitness who saw the entire scene from the balcony of his house recounts.
Our source added: “Further investigations proved that the spy had informed this notorious gang of late Pa Nwachukwu’s visit to the police, thereby leading to the attack on his household.”
After killing the man, the gang reportedly went inside the house searching for other family members.
READ ALSO: One Killed As Unknown Gunmen Attack Hotel, Set Vehicles Ablaze In Ebonyi
While it was evident that the gang intended to eviscerate the entire members of the family, three of his children – Victor Onyedikachi Nwachukwu, Promise Rita Nwachukwu Yakubu and Blessing Nzebechi Nwachukwu escaped.
“I saw the three of them. They ran through the back door. Since that time, we have not seen them again”, the same eye-witness disclosed to our correspondent.
This particular incident has thrown the entire community and Aboh Mbaise Local Government in general, into mourning.
While some questioned the safety of police informants, other believed the incident shows the rot in the police force of the country.
Expressing his disappointment in the police, the chairman of Aboh Mabise LGA; Honourable Barrister Iheukwumere Henry Alaribe vowed a major crackdown on the unknown gunmen.
The Commissioner of Police, Imo State Command, CP Aboki Danjuma promised a total clampdown and return of sanity to the community.
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Protect Oil Palm Host Communities; Address Spate Of Kidnapping, Violence, Govt Told
Published
6 months agoon
February 26, 2025By
Editor
By Joseph Ebi Kanjo
A non-profit organization – African Law Foundation (AFRILAW), has appealed to the government at levels to ensure the protection of oil palm host communities and address the spate of kidnapping and violence in such areas.
AFRILAW further urged the governments to ensure that communities’ rights and privileges are respected in land deals with oil palm companies to avoid human rights violations.
Okereke Chinwike Esq,
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, AFRILAW, made the appeal in Benin on Tuesday at the Public Presentation and launching of ‘The Community-based Report on Human Rights Violations in the Palm Oil Supply Chain in Edo State.’
INFO DAILY reports that the event is part of AFRILAW activities under the “Promoting Human Rights in Palm Oil Supply Chain in Nigeria Project,” being implemented by AFRILAW in partnership with Zero Tolerance Initiative (ZTI) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) with funding support from True Cost Initiative (TCI) USA.
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According to the AFRILAW founder, addressing companies’ human rights violations from their operations in host communities require evidence-based research, hence the research and report presentation.
“The Report we are presenting today documents evidence of community rights violations by major oil palm companies operating in the state. The research is informed by the increasing spate of violence and community protests against the operations of oil palm companies operating in Edo state, and provides greater understanding of the prevailing cases of community and human rights violations and nature of conflicts,” he noted.
He, therefore, urged the government to
“put in place a mandatory binding CSR laws and guidelines for companies to ensure that community rights and privileges are protected.”
He further appealed to the government to “ensure effective implementation of the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights and set forth clear expectations for business enterprises regarding the importance of respecting the rights of human rights defenders, indigenous people and communities in Nigeria.”
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On his part, Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission, Anthony Ojukwu (SAN), described the report as essential, stressing that beyond normal advocacy, research-based advocacy is more efficient and effective.
Represented by Mrs Mary Okoh, Deputy Director, Legal/Focal Point Business and Human Rights, NHRC, Ojukwu said beyond Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) organization should take seriously major issues of mainstreaming human rights into their operations.
“That means anyone who wants to set up a business must put into consideration the needs of the people and not what the organization or company needs. We have found out that this is where human rights violations start.
“Let them be part of the discussion and planning in the setting up of the business. Let them know what is at stake for them,” he said.
Goodwill messages were delivered by government agencies and ministries, while the presentation and launching also attracted security agencies including the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Customs Service, and the Nigeria Immigration Service among others.
Latest news
#EndBadGovernance: Police Manhunt Activists, Others, As Artist Cries Out For Help In Benin
Published
1 year agoon
August 15, 2024By
Editor
The Nigeria Police Force has launched a manhunt for suspected sponsors of the #EndBadGovernance in Nigeria protest that swept round the country last week.
Though police had arrested scores of such protesters across the country, many, especially vocal personalities and civil rights activists who have been criticising policies of the Tinubu administration in Nigeria have been penned down for arrest.
Also of interest to the police are those alleged to have massively produced and supplied Russian flags that were displayed during the protests, as they have vowed that none of the suspects would be spared.
It was gathered that undercover policemen are closing in on the social critics including one Osarenkhoe Destiny Oghosa, a vocal music artiste in Benin City.
READ ALSO: #EndSoldier Shoots 16-year-old #EndBadGovernance Protester Dead In Kaduna
This has raised fears and trepidation in that circle with many going underground for fear of being arrested by the police.
Oghosa is accused of masterminding an attempted jail break in the Benin metropolis similar to the End SARS protest in 2020, experience that resulted in the prison break and escape of prisoners and detainees alike.
Oghosa, in an interview with our correspondent, lamented that his music which focuses social justice, equality, societal ills among others in Nigeria, is now being as a crime.
He further lamented that despite several tactics to beat the security tab on him by agents of the government, he had faced persecution from invincible nocturnal groups.
READ ALSO: #EndBadGovernance: Protesters, Police Clash Averted In Rivers
Further lamenting how the government is hell bent in silencing voices speaking for the masses, Oghosa recalled how he was called at midnight to stop production of his song titled “OBI”, adding that he was seriously warned .
In a related development, Ahmed Bello, one of the suspect producers of the Russian flag hoist in some cities in Nigeria has been attested.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, disclosed this in Abuja on Monday at the Strategic Communications Interagency Policy Committee joint press briefing.
He added that the police were on the trail of other suspects, especially the sponsors of the protest which led to the destruction of government properties in Kaduna and Kano States.
Adejobi said the suspects committed a treasonable felony, offence by waving a foreign country’s flag in Nigeria.
READ ALSO: BREAKING: Tinubu To Address Nigerians Sunday Amid #EndBadGovernance Protests
He said: “So, we need to set the record straight. It is important for us to know, so far so good we have been able to arrest some individuals who were engaging themselves in what I call a treasonable felony, while we are still going after their sponsors.
“To carry the flags of a foreign country in another country is a criminal offence. We have them arrested. Just this morning, we arrested one Ahmed Bello from Kano State fuor producing a large quantity of Russian flags given to young Nigerians to hoist for reasons best known to him.”
The police added that protesters in Benin City had made attempts to invade the DSS office in the state with the intention to free persons who in their opinion were being unjustly detained there-in forcing the law enforcement agencies to disperse them.
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