Diri urges FG to create more states for Ijaw

Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri has urged the federal government to create more states for the Ijaw ethnic nationality as the fourth largest ethnic group in the country. 

Diri, who spoke on Monday at the 25th remembrance anniversary of the late King Geoffery Filinti Aganaba, one of the founding fathers of the state, recalled that the founding fathers had requested three states before the late military leader, General Sani Abacha, created Bayelsa.

• We’ll treat repatriation of Nigerian refugees as emergency – Osinbajo
• ‘ How NIPRISAN is improving access to sickle cell treatment in Nigeria’

Describing the Ijaw as the fourth largest ethnic nationality in the country, Diri lauded the late Aganaba for his contributions in the creation of Bayelsa but said it was not the end of the agitation for more Ijaw states.

Paying tribute to late King Aganaba, the governor described him as a man of peace and freedom fighter, saying the late king sacrificed everything for Ijaw people. 

Former President Goodluck Jonathan, former Military Administrator of old Rivers State and King of Twon-Brass Kingdom, Papapreye Alfred Diette-Spiff and other leaders also paid tributes to the late king who championed the struggle for the creation of a state for the Ijaw.