Ijaw group opposes Clark’s nomination for national confab

Chief E.K. Clark

NOMINATION of South-South delegates to the forthcoming national conference has run into some problems, as an angry section of Ijaw elders yesterday in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, opposed the choice of the Chief E.K. Clark-led South-South Peoples Assembly (SSPA).

  The group, under the umbrella of Ijaw National Congress (INC), sent a protest letter to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Ayim Pius Ayim, on the matter.

  Meeting under the auspices of the Conference of Ijaw Traditional Rulers and Elders (CITRE), the group said the information that the National Conference Committee prescribed that the region’s nominations should be done through SSPA was wrong.

  The elders said that such should be done in consultation with the ethnic organisations in the Niger Delta in particular and the INC. Therefore, in their letter to the SGF shortly after the Ijaw National Day celebration, they announced the former President of INC, Prof. Kimse Okoko, and the Acting President, Ebieridei Charles Ambaiowei, as Ijaw representatives at the conference.

  The decision was endorsed by Ambaiowei, Chairman of CITRE and the Kalaokun of Kolokuma, King Agara Mozi JP; pioneer President of INC, Prof. C.A. Dime; the Amanayabo of Twon Brass, King Alfred Papapreye Diete-Spiff, and INC National Secretary, Sir Theodore Ezonfade.

  According to them, CITRE extensively discussed the modalities for selection of Ijaw delegates and came up with two options - allocation of the 15 Niger Delta slots on ethnic basis, the Ijaw nation would have two while other ethnic groups have one each, or on the basis of the six states.

  In the second case, it was suggested that each of the six states should have two representatives, while the remaining three are shared (one each) on the basis of the old state blocks - old Cross River State (Akwa-Cross), former Bendel State (Edo-Delta) and old Rivers State (Rivers-Bayelsa).

  Meanwhile, the mini Pan-Ijaw Conference, which was attended by over 68 clan representatives from Ijaw communities in the Niger Delta, resolved at a separate meeting also in Yenagoa, that the confab could be an opportunity to enhance the unity of the country, attain fiscal federalism and ensure true democracy.

  Therefore, the INC fully supports it and commends the Goodluck Jonathan administration for convoking it and would attend and participate. According to them, “there is the need to be well prepared and build bridges, articulate the Ijaw position, canvass and mobilise support for it across the country.

  “The INC would establish and make functional a secretariat to service all nominated Ijaw delegates to the conference.”
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