Chairman, Central Zone of the Movement for the Survival of Ijaw Ethnic Nationalities in the Niger Delta, Comrade Patrick Zidougha, has described the Ijaw “anger against the unwarranted inflammatory attacks by Nyesom Wike as justifiable.”
Comrade Patrick Zidougha made the justification while fielding questions from newsmen in his office in Yenagoa over President Tinubu’s proclamation of emergency rule in Rivers State.
He said Nyesom Wike has never been loyal to a cause but only interested in what he will grab, adding that the former Rivers State governor now FCT Minister is the cause of the full brown crisis in the oil rich state in the Niger Delta.
Comrade Patrick Zidougha said it is very demeaning and unbecoming of Wike to call Ijaws a minority of the minorities in the Niger Delta and cannot produce governor in Delta, Edo, Rivers, Akwa Ibom but only in Bayelsa State, which is an Ijaw homogeneous state.
The Niger Delta activist challenged Wike to tell Nigerians his political ideology and where he belongs in the present political dispensation and condemned him for playing the role of destroyer rather than being an agent to build and left indelible footprints on the sands of time.
Comrade Patrick Zidougha reminded Wike if his memory has failed him to search the archives to realize the frontal role the Ijaws played to create Rivers State which brought to fore His Royal Majesty Alfred Pappapreye Diete Spiff as first military Administrator of Rivers State, followed by Chief Melford Okilo as first civilian governor, Chief Ada George who were all Ijaws that ruled old Rivers State.
He said Ijaws were appointed as military administrators of other states in Nigeria during the Military era which is a pointer to the formidable nature of the Ijaws.
He described Wike as someone who allows his current position to be cloud his judgement and denigrate people who contributed to his meteoric rise in politics and warned him not to dare the Ijaws.
When asked on the imposition of emergency rule in Rivers State by President Bola Tinubu, the MOSIEND Central Zone chairman said it is a well rehearsed plot to provoke the Ijaws as there is no provision in the 1979 constitution as amended for the president to suspend an elected governor and state lawmakers.
He advised the Ijaws to react to the situation with caution as there is a grand plot to pick up Ijaw leaders on trump up charges
Comrade Patrick Zidougha informed that the emergency rule imposed on Rivers State is nothing but an oppression on the Ijaws and a way of testing the waters to probably extend it to Bayelsa State just to silence the opposition controlled states for 2027.
He advised angry Ijaw youths not to get involved in angry protest.
Comrade Patrick Zidougha expressed displeasure over President Bola Tinubu absolving Nyesom Wike of the ignominious role he has played in fueling the crisis due to his greed to take charge of the state resources and wonders why Tinubu is only blaming Governor Fubara which he said is an unstatemanly conduct.
He described the Supreme Court judgement on the Rivers State imbroglio particularly nullifying the local government election as very unfortunate and the directive to Central Bank to withheld the statutory allocation of the state as a deliberate action to destabilize the state.
He enjoined Mr. President to lift the emergency rule and restore the democratic structures in Rivers State.
He enjoined the Ijaws to be united and continue the liberation struggle to set the Ijaws free from internal and external aggressors bent on destroying the Ijaw nation.
On the raging issue of core and non-core Ijaw, he advised those who first regard the language they speak as their tribe to realize that they are first and foremost Ijaw by tribe and the language spoken is a dialect in Ijaw and should be proud of being an Ijaw.
