FRESH crisis is looming in Warri, following the threat weekend, by the Ijaw residing in the Ogbe Ijoh area, to resist planned demolition of their properties. They accused the state Commissioner for Inter-Ethnic and Conflict Resolution, Mr. Ovuozorie Macaulay, of evicting them from the area with the intent of handing over the Ogbe Ijoh land to the Itsekiri.
The Ijaw expressed their readiness to resist the move unless the state government paid compensation or provided an alternative where they could be relocated and money paid to the affected people.
But Macaulay dismissed the threat and challenged them to furnish the government with the list of those whose stores and properties were demolished that have not been compensated, declaring that all those affected in the demolition have been compensated and that those threatening to fight because of the matter are �charlatans�, who, according to him, are not happy with the prevailing peace in Warri.
In a statement signed by the Chairman of the Ogbe Ijoh Clan Governing Council, Chief Andrew Anegba and the Vice-Chairman, Mr. Joseph Hitler, made available to Vanguard in Warri weekend, they argued that the Ogbe Ijoh market which is one of the areas marked for demolition has been in existence since the Ijaw founded Warri and that any attempt to demolish the area would be evicting the Ijaw from their ancestral homeland.
�We have always suspected the unwholesome activities of Mr. Macaulay as he has been hostile, biased against the Ijaw. It is obvious that he has a hidden agenda to capture all Ogbe Ijoh land in Warri urban as to erase all traces of Ogbe Ijoh ownership of Warri.
“He evicted the people of Ogbegbene community from our ancestral home land and has refused them to return, yet he claimed to be rehabilitating persons affected by the Warri crisis,� it stated.
According to the statement, �Mr. Macauly should be called to order in the interest of peace because his provocative activities are likely to ignite major crisis in Warri because we shall resist any attempt to give our land to the Itsekiri.”
Apr102006