By Emma Arubi
TENSION is brewing in the Oil rich Itsekiri Communities across Delta and Edo states following the screening and subsequent confirmation of the NDDC Board nominees by the Nigerian Senate in spite of a competent court order puting same on hold even as the Senators’ action has been described as an affront on the Judiciary and an act of legislative lawlessness.
A Warri based legal practitioner, Fabius Jemide Atie Esq., made this remark yesterday in Warri in a statement made available to newsmen, saying that what the Senate did fell short of legal expectations of Deltans from oil producing communities that bears the brunt of oil exploration and exploitation.
Chairman and Secretary of Iwere Consultative Forum, Prince Emma Okotie-Eboh and Comrade Ameachi Ogbonna on their part maintained that they would toe the legal path already filed as a non-violent group, while a former PDP Warri South Chairman, Amah Agbajor stated that it is absurd for the Senate who enacted the Act establishing the Commission would go ahead to contravene the provisions of the same Act as it pertains to appointment the governing board.
Agbajor noted that the action of the Senate is an open invitation to chaos and brazen disregard for the feelings and aspirations of the rightful oil bearing community indigenes with the highest oil production quota in Delta State.
Speaking in the same vein, an Itsekiri youth activist who does not want his name in print said the FG government, the Senate and Nigerians would soon hear from them for this unbridled and unwarranted provocation and deprivation of the Itsekiri of their Constitutional rights and privileges, saying that “we know the language the FG and the Senate understand and nobody should hold them responsible for seeking redress.
“We are fed up with this oppression and deprivation inspite of our huge financial contribution to the revenue base of Nigeria in general and Delta State in particular. We know they are going to sponsor anti-Itsekiri sentiment, we shall not be bothered. We want our rights as guaranteed by the NDDC Act”, he warned.
