Agitation for more Ijaw states must be sustained –Diri

•Says no preferred candidate for INC presidency

Bayelsa State governor, Sen. Douye Diri, has charged the Ijaw ethnic nationality and the Ijaw National Congress (INC) to sustain the agitation for creation of more states, apart from Bayelsa.

Governor Diri stated this on Friday during the 2026 INC national convention at the Ijaw House in Yenagoa.

He implored his kinsmen not to relent on the demand for creation of two additional states out of the three the ethnic group originally agitated for.

The Bayelsa helmsman also stated that he had no preferred candidate among the five contestants for the INC presidency.

Governor Diri restated his advocacy for the practice of true and fiscal federalism in the country, noting that the present lopsided structure could be best described as “unitary federalism.”

He contended that states, including Bayelsa, would be better developed if they controlled one hundred per cent of their resources and pay tax to the federal government.

He said: “We have tried. Today, we have one state (Bayelsa). The INC, under the leadership of Chief Joshua Fumudoh, asked for three, which are Oil Rivers, Bayelsa and Toru-Ibe states. This means we have two additional states that must be pursued by the Ijaw nation and the INC. So, it is not yet uhuru.

“This is a struggle we must continue and if we cannot achieve it in our time, we will hand it over to our children. Our land and waters have nourished this nation and fuelled its economic activities and yet for too long we have borne the unfortunate environmental damage and social disadvantage.

“Economic inequities, environmental degradation and infrastructural neglect remain our pressing challenges that require our local and national resolve to redress. The challenges we face are formidable but l have no doubt that our sons and daughters possess the resilience and indomitable spirit to overcome them.”