No more dialogue with Niger-Delta militants, says Ibori

No more dialogue with Niger-Delta militants, says Ibori

From Sunny Ogefere, Asaba

MASTERMINDS of crisis in the Niger-Delta region would no longer enjoy the privilege of dialogue with the government, Governor James Ibori of Delta State has declared.

Handing down the warning yesterday, Governor Ibori said the time had come for government to bare its fangs and let criminals and social deviants know that they could not go on violating the rule of law and threatening peace in the area with impunity.

Speaking at the monthly press briefing in Asaba, Ibori said that the military and other security gencies have the blessing and support of the government in whatever measures they take to deal with those who violate the structures and measures put in place to achieve lasting peace in the area. "We have gone past the era of jaw-jaw because we now have in place measures that would give us peace in the area. And anyone that violates these measures will go down for it", he warned. "Mine is an appeal to the ethnic groups, especially the Ijaw and the Itsekiri, to keep off the waterways, particularly those with the intent to attack one village or the other", he added.

Ibori said that anyone who goes in a convoy of boats on the waterways and in a war mood would have his or herself to blame for whatever befalls him or her. He said over the years, the state government had tried to reason with the troublemakers but lamented that most of them have failed to heed wise counsel. This, he explained, informed government's decision to back its warning with action so that innocent and law-abiding citizens could be protected and an enabling environment created for peace in the area. He said: "Unless we start doing something concrete and be more decisive, people might begin to think that we are just a toothless bulldog."

The governor disclosed further that two suspects recently arrested over a kidnapping incident would be tried very soon. Besides, he said other persons involved, particularly the sponsors of the alleged kidnappers, were being tracked down by security men. He, however, observed that the Warri area and its environs were relatively peaceful and commended the efforts of the community leaders and security operatives for their co-operations in making this possible.

© 2003 @ Guardian Newspapers Limited (All Right Reserved).

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Post Express (Lagos)
July 28, 2000
By Emma Okocha Lagos

When there was no country called Nigeria, Asaba was the civil headquarters of the territory ruled by the Royal Niger Company. This British chartered company controlled the Southern territories of Nigeria after receiving the grant of charter to the company on July 10, 1886.

According to the respected erudite Nigerian legal authority Elias T.S. Oluwole, in the "Makers of the Nigerian Law," 1963, Elias revealed that the Chief Justice of the new administration was Sir, James Marshall and the headquarters was at Asaba.

Furthermore, Gils Geography in use up to 1912 clearly stated that Asaba was the capital of Southern Nigeria. Dennis Osadebay, and numerous other authorities sustain our thesis on the status of Asaba before and after independence leading to the period that saw the scrambling of the Nigerian federation.

Therefore, for Chief Okumagba the president of Urhobo Progressive Union to refer to Asaba as the capital of a fringe Delta group before the vice-president and the governor of a pluralist state is to hoodwink history. Whatever happens, we cannot pretend that Delta has had a just exercise in the creation of states, on account of the size of its population, resource allocation, the condition of its trained manpower and language affinity. We believe that Delta should at least be divided into two or three states.

The injustice is so palpable when you compare the position of state to the "Triage" states of Kebbi, Yobe, Osun and Ebonyi states. If these states can stay, why not one more in Delta. If on the other hand, the state remains intact, there is the need for the various groups to accept each other on equal terms. We therefore, call for a state conference between the Anioma people, the Ijaws, Urhobos, Isokos, and the Itsekiris. For example the Itsekiris are full of trepidation whenever a proposal is made for a creation of New Delta State with capital at Warri.

Whatever happens, it is time we go back to history to represent the true events that led to the creation of Delta State. Navy Commander 'Whisky' Feghabo in his first town meeting with the people of Delta on assuming office as their governor told them the story behind the naming of Abakaliki as the capital of Ebonyi. He said the state was created in deference to the pioneer governor of the former Eastern Nigeria, Akanu Ibiam. Ibiam had the choice of setting up the capital at Afikpo his home town. Rather he opted for Abakaliki. Great Ibiam!

It was at the same occasion that Dr. Oka Orewa, a UN consultant on local government told the story behind the creation of Delta State and why Asaba became the capital. He said that during the struggle for the creation of states, in the Babangida era, the Anioma people continued with their agitation which was started in 1958. In fact, Anioma was the oldest proposal that was championed by Ndokwa born Oguegbunan Dafe, Chief J.I.G. Onyia, Chief H.U. Utomi etc. From this group, we saw the emergence of the Nduka Eze, Amadi Emina, Orewa, Halim and Nosike Ikpo took over from the last group. The New Delta group were led by the Orodje of Okpe, Senator Dafinone, Chief Edwin Clark, General David Ejoor etc. When the Anioma and New Delta group merged into Delta there was an agreement by all to establish the capital at Abraka an Urhobo land. Anioma supported Abraka on account of its central placing and access to virgin land for development. Later the Urhobos reneged on Abraka and opted for Ughelli. The Olu of Warri responded that Ughelli would be 'capital of Delta on his dead body.' Meanwhile, the government waited for the new proponents to name their capital so that the announcement of the new states will follow with the names of their capitals. With 48 hours to go, the Delta group were still unable to arrive at a compromise. They were unable to submit any name or city as the capital. The Federal Government guided by history and justice named Asaba capital. Anioma the oldest proposed state had lost out but had the capital. The Southern Delta was destined to lord it over the north as a result of its population advantages.

The balderdash that Asaba was named capital because the then first lady intervened does not hold water. Indeed, as a result of the trauma the family suffered at the hands of federal troops and some hostile Bini and Urhobo brigands, leading to the killing of her father, Mrs. Ndidi Babangida has blocked out the sad events and would rather not be passionate about the Anioma cause.

A Letter to Mrs. Maryam Abacha

By Hilary Evbayiro

Dear Mrs. Abacha:

When your husband sacked Shonekan and took control of Nigeria, people thought he was going to be our redeemer. People thought he was going to deliver the goods that Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB) failed us, but within a short time, your husband proved all of us wrong. He became a menace and began to unleash evil on the people of Nigeria, even worse than what IBB did, while Nigerians watched in shocking horror and fear. Madam, one can only hope that you have not forgotten the proverbial saying that “the evil that men do lives after them.”

I have not actually cared about you and your family since your husband died disgracefully. I do not care not because I do not have inveterate hope and interest in what is happening in my country of nativity, but because I felt we should allow true justice to take its course. By true justice, I mean the kind of justice that your husband denied Nigerians during his evil and satanic reign.

Since your husband died, you have not relented in your odious efforts to seize the spotlight to seek pity for your situation, which your brazen ways and jezebel-like iniquities brought upon you and your family. Right from the very beginning and as the disheartening stories of your husband's egregious atrocities on fellow Nigerians started to unfold, you even tried to make the BBC Hausa Service a place to flaunt your stories, circulate falsehood, and garner supports and undeserved sympathy. At that time too, you tried to enlist the assistance and support of General Buhari in your frenzied attempt to try to stop the Federal Government from looking into the evil deeds of your husband. Unfortunately for you, he declined your request. You then turned to and started to woo some of the powerful traditional rulers to help suppress the blaze of truth and justice. They too refused. The killings of innocent Nigerians by your husband and son started to unfold and the bloods of many Nigerians who died needlessly started to leak in the hands of your husband and family. Your son, Mohamed, was indicted for crimes against the Nigerian people. You started to cry foul and ran helter-skelter. You resorted to talking nonsense and insulting the whole people of Nigeria. You went back to the same people who previously did not want to have anything to do with you and your family. You even went to IBB, another quondam evil ruler, the master of dubiety and devil incarnate himself; he too turned you down with sly.

How could you have been living hale and hearty at the time your husband was macerating the generality of our people into submission and destroying our economy? It is too late for you to cry now. You and your family certainly had it coming. The evils of your husband have befallen your family, and you have no one to blame for the whole thing but yourself for not stopping it when you could have done so. It was a choice before you then, but you chose not to do the right thing. You chose not to advise your husband against his vileness toward his fellow Nigerians. You chose a different course of action. You chose to enrich your family's pocket at the excruciatingly killing pains and expense of millions of Nigerians who have now been thrown into the lethargy of economic deprivation and abject neediness. I do not think you even have the right to show your shamelessness in public, let alone suing the Federal Government of Nigeria and some individuals. You should cover yourself in infamy and begin to rue the humiliation and indignity that greed has brought upon you and your family.

When I read about your frivolous and evil-minded lawsuit, I was sickened and appalled to the point that it caused a visceral revulsion in me. Rather than continuing to antagonize Nigerians and our government, I think you need to return all the loots in your possession and then beg for forgiveness and mercy for the socio-economic mayhems your husband and family perpetrated on us. It is very surprising to see that you are talking of constitutional right when you watched and relished delight in people's pain and anguish as your husband tortured, maimed, and killed Nigerians who was bold enough to challenge his wrong doings. Today, you are talking of constitutional right. Nigeria has changed positively and tremendously in the right direction. At last, we all, and even you, can now talk and complain of constitutional rights. You have forgotten that at the time your devilish husband was in power, there was nothing like constitutional right. Please remember that Ken Saro Wiwa, MKO Abiola, Shehu Yar'Adua, Kudirat Abiola, and the myriad of other Nigerians whose lives were cut short by the dastard action of someone in your family cannot now talk of constitutional right. Mrs. Maryam Abacha, why are you talking of constitutional right when it is not a concept in your family book?

President Obasanjo has made his intentions loud and clear concerning the evils of your husband. He has stated that the misdeeds of your husband and family must be left to the court of justice, which is exactly what we are seeing thus far with the on-going trial of your son, Mohamed, and some of his henchmen. For Nigerians, especially those who were put through hell by the depraved atrocities of your husband, whatever is happening to your family is quite apposite and utterly condign, considering the evils he perpetrated on our people and the heinous legacy he left behind.

I must admit that I am sick and tired of hearing that you were on national limelight, most unabashedly, to say this and that about Nigeria and what is being done to your disgraced family. Why can't and won't you get out of your deceitful world and see the true life and horror that your husband and family put Nigerians through? Madam, I do not think you have conscience. Your actions and unremorseful attitude thus far are tantamount to an arrant lack of penitence and must be deprecated most disdainfully.

Considering your various public utterances concerning your husband heinous treatment of the Nigerian people, it is very clear that you may be suffering from a “crusonic” amnesia or are just too wicked to recognize the wrongs your husband did to Nigerians during the lamentable period of his reprobacy. If you have totally forgotten everything so soon, perhaps the following questions will help jog your memory about Nigeria during your husband reign and Nigeria of today. Where were you when your malevolent husband was terrorizing Nigerians? Where were you when your husband was turning our treasury into your family property? Where were you when your husband was doing all the killings? Where were you when it was mooting that your late husband was the one who set up the helicopter crash that killed your first son? Where were you when your husband was using viagra to do himself to a scandalous death in the hands of two foreign prostitutes as reported?

Madam, you need to allow true justice to reign; again, I mean the kind of justice that Nigerians did not know when your dementedly satanic husband ruled Nigeria. Without a tincture of doubt, you are now the matriarch of the evil empire conceived and concocted by your husband. You seem to have forgotten you told the world that your husband was saving money for Nigeria in foreign banks? Why are you suing to claim what belong to the people of Nigeria? Why are you trying to pervert the true course of justice with a frivolous suit? Mrs. Abacha, if you are yet to see the evils that your husband did to Nigeria and Nigerians, you must be congenitally blinded to the truth and dead in conscience. Please do not try to fool us. We may be ruthlessly oppressed in the past, but we are certainly not easily fooled. Please stop insulting us and face up to the sins and evil deeds of your husband.

My dear Mrs. Maryam Abacha, Nigerians and the whole world are against you and your family. The more you bad-mouth and vilify Nigeria and our nascent democracy, the more you aggravate your problems. Please confess your sins and that of your husband. Beg for forgiveness for this is the only sure way you will ever live in peace and find solace. This is your only way out.

Sincerely,

Hilary Evbayiro .