As preparations are on top gear for the resumption at the proposed controversial Nigerian Maritime University (NMU) at Okerenkoko in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State, emotions are now high over the name of its location.
Reports, last week, emerged that the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), had advised the National Assembly to act in accordance with a judgment of the Supreme Court to retain the name “Okerenghigho” as the lawful name of the site of the proposed NMU.
But the Ijaw people of Gbaramatu kingdom, had advised the National Assembly to jettison such move or be ready for a renewed hostility against economic assets and their Itsekiri neighbour.
A Supreme Court judgement, which could not be got as of press time, was said to have earlier restored the name of the NMU location as ‘Okerenghigho,’ an Itsekiri word, as against Ijaw’s ‘Okerenkoko,’ thereby supposedly conferring ownership of the area to the former.
Perhaps depending much on cleverness and sophistication the Itsekiri had simply gone to the AGF with a petition to request the enforcement of the Supreme Court’s judgement on the name of the location of the university.
Reacting swiftly to the development, President of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Pereotubo Oweilaemi, Esq., in a statement, described the action of the AGF as an invitation to chaos and anarchy, accusing him of conniving with land grabbers.
Oweilaemi said the letter by the AGF, if it had any atom of truth, was not only provocative, but designed to instigate ethnic crisis between the Ijaws and Itsekiri, reminiscent of late 90s.
“IYC sees the letter as another ploy by our external forces to pitch tent between the Ijaws and our Itsekiri neighbours to engage each other in fratricidal war.
“We condemn the move by the AGF and warn that he should let the sleeping dogs lie. We cannot allow outsiders to keep on causing crisis in the region.
“If the AGF loves the peace we are enjoying in the Niger Delta region which is hitherto the survival of the country’s economy, then he should refrain from acts that is capable of causing friction between the two ethnic groups.
“The Ijaw nation will defend that school and Okerenkoko land even with the last drop of our blood. We will not allow history to repeat itself. Any attempt to change the name of that school will be met with stiff resistance,” ,” the IYC warned.
Meanwhile, the apex Itsekiri youth body inaugurated by the Olu of Warri, Ogiame Ikenwoli, the Itsekiri National Youth Congress (INYC) has described as ‘inconsistent, primitive and antithetical to civilisation’ the calls by the Ijaws of Gbaramatu for the National Assembly to jettison the Supreme Court decision on the lawful renaming of the location of NMU to Okerenghigho as against Okerenkoko.
INYC in a statement signed by its President Comrade Esimaje Awani, wondered how people requesting civilisation through a university could be resisting a Supreme Court judgement and threatening violence against oil and gas facilities in the region.
“A people cannot be advocating for a University and at the same time representing themselves to the whole world as a people who have strong intolerance for the Judgment of the highest court of law.
“It is a shame to have supposedly educated people describe the judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction as inconsequential and should therefore be discountenanced.
“It is almost becoming a routine for the Ijaws in this region to blackmail the Federal Government into sacrificing the rule of law on the altar of necessity for oil exploration,” Comrade Esimaje noted.
The Itsekiri youths group enjoined the AGF and the National Assembly to ignore and not succumb to the blackmail and threats of the Ijaws by enforcing the apex court’s judgment without fear of favour.
While emotions remain high on both sides, stakeholders have called on the FG to thread with caution as it enforces the rule of law in the imbroglio to avoid a repeat of Ijaw/Itsekiri war.