Ijaws Cry Out Over Non Representation At Natl Confab

A former acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Pastor Power Ziakede Aginighan, has decried the exclusion of Ijaws in states like Edo, Ondo and Akwa-Ibom States from the ongoing National Conference, stressing that because of their minority status in the said states, they ought to have been given the chance to make their own case at the conference.

“I wish to place on record my displeasure at the omission of the Ijaw in Ondo, Edo and Akwa-Ibom States from the list of delegates to the conference. The Ijaws in these three states have peculiar challenges arising from their minority status. It would have been desirable to give them the opportunity to state their case themselves”, Aginighan said.

He urged other Ijaws at the conference like Chief Edwin Clark, Professor Kimse Okoko, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, Ambassador Lawrence Ekpebu and  Mr. Atedo Peterside, among others, “not to see themselves as representatives of the various states or platforms on which they were selected but also as representatives of the entire Ijaw ethnic nationality comprising Arogbo and Apoi clans in Ondo, Egbema, Olodiama, Inikorogha, Okomu and Furupagha  clans in Edo State, the Ijaw in Delta, the Ijaw in Bayelsa, the Ijaw in Rivers and Eastern Obolo and Ibeno clans of Akwa-Ibom State.”

He further advised the Ijaw delegates to consult widely with Ijaws at home and abroad, so they can effectively deliver on their mandate.