The umbrella body for the Ijaw people, the Ijaw National Council (INC), Friday said the people of the ethnic nationality will not be intimidated by antics of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to keep silence on the issues affecting the people of the area and Niger Delta region at large.
The group also condemned the former president’s outburst against the national secretary of INC, Engr. Ebipamowei Wodu, while presenting the position of Ijaw people during a forum organized by the Global Peace Foundation in collaboration with Vision Africa in Abuja recently.
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Speaking with newsmen at Ijaw House in Yenagoa, the National President of INC, Prof. Benjamin Okaba, said the Ijaw people were not surprised by Obasanjo’s hatred when he allegedly ordered armed soldiers to invade Odi in Bayelsa State and massacred innocent people in 1999.
He urged the former president to retract his comment and apologize to the Ijaw and Niger Delta people over his actions that tend to show hatred against the people.
He said: “For us as Ijaws, we have been treated as second class citizens; I don’t have any reservations about that. Ijaws today produce the bulk of the resources from oil and gas in this country that is the mainstay.
