It was an admixture of tears and anger yesterday as the bodies of nine of the 15 Ijaw and Niger-Delta militants, who were recently killed by federal security forces at the coastal area of Letugbne in Bayelsa State, were laid out in a pensive burial ceremony in Warri, Delta.
However, the militants, who regard themselves as liberation and justice fighters in the Niger-Delta, accused the President Olusegun administration and the Shell Petroleum Development Company of betraying the trust of the Ijaw people in the memorandum of understanding expected to bring about lasting peace and development in the area.
In a seven-page statement signed by the leaders of the Niger-Delta Ijaw Communities (FNDIC) at the ceremony yesterday the Ijaws said they feared the coming to pass of the controversial prediction by the United States that Nigeria might disintegrate in no distant fuure, allerging a deliberate attempt in certain quarters to perpetrate something akin to genocide against the Ijaw ethnic group in Nigeria.
The statement reads in part: “As a peoplewhose legitimate mas action of sel-defence on February 15, 17 and 18, 2006 was largely responsible for widespread disruption of SPDC operations in the Niger-Delta , and, considering the new peace spirit of the Presidential Council on Socio-economic Develop-ment of Coastal states of the Niger-Delta (COSEDECS), the Ijaw people of Delta State felt obliged to collaborate in the variuos efforts to resolve the Letugbene hostage saga.�
“Against the above, Ijaw Mandate, and well aginst the aforementioned national call to service, men of the security Joint Task Force, “Operation Restore Hope” in the service of the SPDC ambushed, intercepted and killed not l ess than 15 Ijaw persons and wounded many more on 20th August, 2006 in the Letugbene Creeks of Bayelsa State.”
The statement, signed by Dr Bello Oboko, Kingsley Otuaro, President and seceretary, respectively and other officers of the FNDIC accused the SPDC of complicity in what it termed an obvious plot to exterminate Ijaw people, but vowed to resist such with all means available to the people.
The ceremony was without incident though police helicopter hovered around the oil-rich city and heavy security presence actually stood aloof as the huge funeral procession progressed from the General Hospital, Warri, where the bodies had been in the morgue, to the Waterside of the town from where each of the nine corpses were ferried to their respective native villages.