The new group which spoke for the very first time on Wednesday also demanded that the federal government allow the $16 billion Export Processing Zone otherwise called Delta Gas City project begin operations in earnest.

It, however, gave the government a two-week ultimatum to ensure that their demands were adequately met for a lasting ceasefire in the region.

Spokesperson of Ultimate Warrior, as it chose to be addressed, Sibiri Taiowoh, in a statement, said if the FG truly wants peace in the region, it should award 60 per cent oil bloc to indigenous people from the region as its primary demand for a ceasefire.

The group further asked for commencement of academic activities at Federal Maritime University established during the regime of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Warning further, it said failure to meet its demands, would warrant total shutting down of vital oil facilities including Chevron BOP, Okan Platform, MEREN Gas Gathering Compression Platform and Chevron Tank Farm.

“We are also behind the recent pipeline bombing in the Niger Delta region and I can assure you we will not stop until the EPZ project and the Maritime University are totally completed and start operations.

“We want to be the ones to be safe guarding oil pipeline in our area so as to create more jobs for our people. We would resist any attempt to give surveillance contracts of pipeline in our backyard to foreigners. We want the pipeline jobs to be given to our indigenous people.”

“We also want 60 per cent of the oil blocs to be allocated to the Niger Deltans just as the Federal Government has also allocated 80 per cent to those who are not from the oil producing area and just as 50 per cent of the resource was used to develop the non-oil area when we were producing cocoa and groundnut as main economic resources, the same 50 percent should be use to develop the Niger Delta region because we are the ones suffering the brunt of oil pollution and degradation in the region”, it further added.

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Oboroegbeyi said that “Mr President’s failure, again, to keep his promise to perform the groundbreaking of the Ogidigben EPZ project rescheduled for today (yesterday) is, to say the least, disappointing and embarrassing.”

Secretary of Itsekiri Leaders of Thought, ILOT, Edward Ekpoko, who reacted to same, said it was surprising that no official reason had been given for the failure of the groundbreaking to take place.

However, an Ijaw youth leader, Paul Bebenimibo, said that “The March 16 date for the Gas City and the Deep Sea Port groundbreaking was tentative.

“Therefore, the Itsekiri should not trouble themselves over the issue. Mr President is committed to the project and, of course, the groundbreaking. Some of us are tired of the Itsekiri’s frequent statements that they will not vote Mr President if the groundbreaking ceremony is not performed before the election.

“They should know that the issue is not just performing the groundbreaking, but having a peaceful atmosphere for the project to continue.

“Mr President did not approve the March 16 date. It was a tentative date that did not work out. They should give him time to come up with a suitable date before the election.”

Meanwhile, the Itsekiri nation has said that the attack on Ogidigben, host of the $16 billion Export Processing Zone, EPZ, by Ijaw youths, last weekend, was part of the larger agenda of the Ijaw ethnic group to annihilate the Itsekiri, which President Jonathan is allegedly pursuing.

Secretary of Itsekiri Leaders of Thought, Ekpoko, said that “The Itsekiri nation knew about this agenda for a very long time and Jonathan is part of it.”

He spoke amid report that there has been tension in some riverine communities in the affected area in the past three days over the unprovoked violence with some people thinking that the Itsekiri may carry out a reprisal attack.

Ekpoko, said that “If the masterminds of this attack are not brought to book, the Itsekiri people will drag President Jonathan to the International Criminal Court. This is not going to be like previous attacks on Itsekiri communities by the Ijaw in 1997 after which nothing was done.”

Chairman, Sokebolou/Yokri People’s Congress, Burutu Local Government Area, Mr. Bob Towei, who confirmed that there was tension in the creeks over the gunshots and explosions on the EPZ ground, said that “We are not surprised that explosions and gunshots rocked the proposed EPZ land because we have called on the governor to reconvene a meeting of all stakeholders, but he did not.”

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President Goodluck Jonathan abruptly cancelled his visit to Delta State to perform the ground breaking ceremony of the project, renamed Delta Gas City by the Federal Government, on Friday, following a threat by the Ijaw of Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South-West Local Government Area to unleash violence if he came without first resolving their grievances.

It was the second time Jonathan cancelled the ground breaking ceremony, having done so in June, based on the same reasons advanced by the Ijaw.

An Ijaw leader, who confirmed that he was already in Abuja for the meeting, said, “The meeting is summoned by the Group Managing Director, GMD, of NNPC. They are saying they did not know that Ijaw actually own part of the land acquired by the Delta State government for the project and they did not even know that there is crisis of this dimension over the project site until we protested, last Wednesday.”

The Federal Government, in a statement, last Thursday, formally announcing the postponement of the ground breaking ceremony of the Gas Revolution Industrial Park, GRIP, said the decision was taken by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, after consultations with Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State.

Sources said that Uduaghan, who had stated 24 hours earlier that nobody could stop Jonathan from coming to Delta to perform the ground breaking ceremony, was taken aback at the postponement contrary to the claim that the decision was taken after consultations with him.

In fact, the Itsekiri Leaders of Thought, ILT, an influential Itsekiri group, led by Pa J.O.S Ayomike, never knew the President had cancelled the trip to the state until the day of the ceremony.

The Friday’s failure of Jonathan to perform the ground breaking ceremony of the project had sparked controversy with many asking why the President would suspend a ceremony because of a threat by his kinsmen.

“President Jonathan’s refusal to perform the ground breaking ceremony of the project as fixed for Friday was a show of cowardice unexpected of his office which should stand for the rule of law.

“He has shown that he has joined the Ijaw militants in building fences among the ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta and Nigeria”, the ILT said.

An Ijaw leader said that “We are not against the EPZ project, what we are saying is that the project is on Ijaw land as well as it is on Itsekiri land. So it should not be named after Ogidigben, an Itsekiri community alone.”

The Ajuwaoyiboyami of Warri Kingdom, Chief Ayiri Emami, alias Akulagba, lambasted Jonathan for abandoning the ground breaking ceremony because of threat by some Ijaw ex-militants.

He said, “The truth must be told that Itsekiri people can no longer fold our arms and watch Government Ekpemupolo in collaboration with some of his Ijaw brothers and a few Itsekiri dissidents continue to take what God has given to us.”

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