One week after they whisked away their victims from a funeral at Banigo Isile-Ogono in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) has ordered kidnappers of the Banigo Four to release them immediately, unconditionally and unharmed.
Chairman of the IYC, Ibani Clan, Princewill Oko-Jumbo, who issued this order in an interview with Kristina Reports in Bonny, Rivers State, warned of dire consequences should their ultimatum not be complied with.
“As a body, we are saying that they should release those being held hostage with immediate effect, unconditionally and unharmed.”
According to him, information available to the IYC indicate that the kidnappers may have come from neighbouring communities around Bonny and as such were likely to be from Ijaw communities and thus comes under the purview of the group.
“The issue of speculation does not even need to come in because whether we like it or not, the people who did this act are either Ijaw people or living in Ijaw communities because if we want to talk about the Ijaw people, we have the core Ijaw people which are the Bayelsans.”
“But when we come to Rivers State, we have the Rivers Ijaw people who fall under the Ijaw tribe. So, if somebody is from Opobo, Andoni, Bonny, Kalabari, and Bille, among others, is an ijaw man.”
He deplored the trauma and needless suffering the families of the victims have been subjected, saying that it was unacceptable for Ijaw people to undermine the wellbeing of their fellow Ijaws.
“So, we will be talking about marginalization, an Ijaw person cannot also come to marginalize his own brother. We are supposed to work in synergy to fight for our resources, to fight for our freedom, not to use it against our brothers.”
“Do you know what it means, for how many days now, to hold people hostage? The trauma which the families are passing through. It is very, very uncalled for. So as a body, we are saying that they should release those being held hostage with immediate effect, unconditionally and unharmed.”
The Ijaw ethnical nationality, which extends across the Atlantic coastline from Ondo to Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom States, comprising over 51 clans. The Ibani Clan comprises communities in Bonny LGA.
Oko-Jumbo maintained that the security of Bonny Kingdom as a critical component of the Ijaw nation should be strengthened to prevent such dastardly acts from resurfacing.
Situation reports from our news desk indicate that as at the time of this report none of the abductees have been released neither have their family members been contacted by the assailants.
Criminal elements invaded the venue of a funeral at Finiapiri-Ama (Amauda) in a speedboat, shooting sporadically and injuring several people including the Leader of the Bonny Legislative Assembly, Miriam Hart, and snatched four titled citizens of Bonny Kingdom away just before the troops drawn from the Nigerian Army and Nigerian Navy arrived in gunboats.
The lawmaker representing Bonny Constituency in the State House of Assembly, Abinye Pepple, and Chairman of Bonny LGA, David Irimagha, among other guests narrowly escaped being assassinated by the hoodlums.
The government should take drastic effort in curbing criminal activities in our region irrespective of party and ethnic lines.