OGBE-IJOH BEHEADING: IJAW WOMEN CONDEMNED KILLING, CALLS ON DELTA STATE GOVERNMENT TO PREVENT FURTHER KILLINGS

• Threatened that the Ijaws would not fold their arms to watch the unabated killings of its citizens

  

A sociocultural group in the Niger Delta under the umbrella of Ijaw Women Connect, IWC , a body covering all the Ijaw women worldwide have condemned the beheading of an Ogbe-Ijoh indigene, Samson Bebebo by alleged Urhobo youths of Aladja yesterday.

IWC made the statement through its President, Comr. Rosemary Graham in a Press statement sent to Gbaramatu Voice Newspaper today while calling on the Delta State government to wade into the imbroglio to forestall further killings.

President Graham further appeals to the warring communities of Aladja in Udu Local Government Area and Ogbe-Ijoh in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State to embrace peace, stressing that Urhobos are the closest to the Ijaws with historical bond of blood relationship.

Comr. Rosemary also threatened that the Ijaws would not fold their arms to watch the unabated killings of its citizens.

In her words “Ijaws will not fold their arms all over the Ijaw Nation and watch their brothers and sisters being killed daily. Because a fight against one Ijaw Community is a fight against the Ijaw Nation.”

The statement read “We condemn strongly the provocative attack and killing of an Ijaw man Mr. Samson Bebebo yesterday 3rd December, 2016 by perceived armed men of Aladja Community, an Urhobo settlement that shares boundary with Ogbe-Ijoh an Ijaw community in  Warri South West LGA of Delta State. ‎

“As a matter of urgency, we demand the Government of Delta State, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and his executive council to step into this warring communities and stop further escalation of this killings” IWC said

It added “The Urhobo Nation through her youth body and leader made a declaration few weeks ago issuing threats to Ijaws residing in Urhobo communities of Udu to leave and an ultimatum of two weeks was served to Ijaw people. Groups from various factions and the government waded into the disputing communities and a peace path reached.
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“Little did we know that our brothers from the Urhobo nation prefers to role out the drum of war than the peace we preached daily not to destroy the relative peace we have enjoyed over the years as sister ethnic nationalities that has co-ex‎isted together for decades.
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“We want to call on our brothers from Aladja to embrace peace and stop further killings of Ijaws in Ogbe-Ijoh and other places. We should not allow the present system sow a seed of disunity among us, as government will come and go, but we as a people will continue to leave with the scars, because no Ijaw will leave his‎/her community for fear of death and invasion.
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“Urhobos are the closest ethnic groups to the Ijaws with historical bond of blood relationship as it is rare to see an Ijaw family without an Urhobo lineage or verse visa.

“We as mothers of the Ijaw Nation will continue to play our roles as the greatest advocates of peace, in speaking to our youths and husbands not to trade the path of war, but Peace. Because where there is peace, there is harmony.

Email: gbaramatuvoice@gmail.com

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