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By Sunday Ani
Rights activist and Igba of Warri, Chief Rita Lori-Ogbebor has raised the alarm over what she termed looming genocide against the Itsekiri people in Warri, Delta State.
She made the allegation on Friday, in Lagos while addressing journalists at a press conference.
She accused the Ijaw and Urhobo of plotting to massacre the people of Itsekiri, citing two consecutive world press conferences by the Ijaw and the Urhobo, where she alleged that they threatened to deal with the Itsekiri if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) fails to create new electoral wards from the Itsekiri land.
She noted that she was raising the alarm to forestall the recurrence of similar incidents, which happened between 1997 and 2003, leading to the death of scores of Itsekiri women and children.
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She attributed the crisis between 1997 and 2003 to the relocation of the local government that was supposed to be in Ogidigben to Ogbe-Ijaw. “That was the cause of the fight between 1997 and 2003. It was called the Warri crisis,” she added.
She also stressed that the best way to provide protection to the Itsekiri nation from their Ijaw and Urhobo tormentors was to carve out a new state for the Itsekiri from the current Delta State.
“They should give us our own state. We want a Warri State. We were a nation on our own. We signed the treaty of amalgamation. We are talking of Itsekiri that are 600 to 700 years old on their land.
“We want Warri State, and that is very possible because Warri meets the conditions required for state creation. There are a lot of smaller nations in the world, smaller than Itsekiri, but they are sovereign nations. The most important thing is that we must be able to look after ourselves. And Warri is viable,” she stated.
