The Ijaw National Congress (INC) has attacked former President Olusegun Obasanjo over the latter’s comments on resource control, accusing him of bullying the National Secretary of the group, Ebipamowei Wodu.
Africa Daily News, New York gathered that a viral video had surfaced recently, where Obasanjo was shown launching emotional outburst against Wodu during the latter’s presentation of the Ijaw position at a forum organised by the Global Peace Foundation in collaboration with Vision Africa at the Transcorp Hilton Abuja.
Obasanjo was quoted as saying: ‘As long as Nigeria is together, whatever that is under the ground is given to all Nigerians by God.’
The INC President, Prof Benjamin Okaba, who was flanked by other leaders of the Ijaw nation at a press conference addressed at the Ijaw House in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital on Friday, that Obasanjo’s comments on the Ijaw nation was a joke taken too far.
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According to him, Obasanjo and his likes had over the years denied the Ijaw nation their rights, declaring, ‘we cannot be intimidated, hushed and harassed into moronic silence’.
Okaba who rejected Obasanjo’s argument on resource control challenged him to be bold enough to say the same thing for the gold and bitumen in Zamfara and Ondo states.
‘We consider his claim on resource control ownership as pernicious, provocative, oppressive, and wicked.” The INC accused Obasanjo of displaying hatred against the Ijaw nation, which has been shown in his attitude towards the people.
‘Obasanjo has not visited any oil and gas related polluted sites across Ijaw land and the Niger Delta Region to appreciate first-hand the enormity of environmental degradation and calamity suffered by the people with attendant epidemics, health challenges and lack of access to social amenities.
‘We are not surprised at the hatred of the former President for the Ijaw and the Niger Delta people as he demonstrated a huge dose of this towards Ijaw people when he, in a supposed democracy in 1999, ordered armed soldiers to invade an Ijaw community, Odi in Bayelsa State’.
The former President is yet to react to the statement by the Ijaw leaders.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
