The Ijaw National Council (INC) has said their people will not be intimidated by the tricks of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to keep silent on the issues affecting their people and Niger Delta region at large.
The INC also condemned Obasanjo’s outburst against their National Secretary, Engr. Ebipamowei Wodu, while presenting the position of Ijaw people during a forum organized by the Global Peace Foundation in collaboration with Vision Africa in Abuja recently.
At the forum, Wodu had said: “For us as Ijaws, we have been treated as second class citizens, I don’t have any reservations about that. Ijaws today produce the bulk of the resources from oil and gas in this country that is the mainstay.”
In the broadcast, Obasanjo was seen tackling Wodu in an ungentlemanly manner over his views on issues bordering on the age-long neglect, suffering and general underdevelopment of the Ijaw territory and the people by the Nigerian state.
The National President, Benjamin Okaba at a press conference in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, said the Ijaw people were not surprised by Obasanjo’s hatred when he ordered armed soldiers to invade Odi in Bayelsa State and massacred innocent people in 1999.
He said: “After a careful watch and critical analysis of the trending short video clip/broadcast by GEE TV Africa on 13th December 2021, the Ijaw National Congress frowns at the blatant emotional outburst, crude and rude disruption and attack of former President Olusegun Obasanjo on the National Secretary of the INC, Engr. Ebipamowei Wodu while presenting the Ijaw position at the forum organised by the Global Peace Foundation in collaboration with Vision Africa at the Transcorp Hilton Abuja.”
