The Chiefs, Elders and people of Obumuton-Chiri Kingdom in Port Harcourt Local Government Area of Rivers State say they are not happy with utterances purportedly made by the Executive Governor of the state, Chief (Barr) Nyesom Ezenwo Wike in which he referred to the Okrika Nation as land grabbers.
The angry Okrikans who made their feelings known through a statement signed by the Chairman, Obumuton-Chiri Progressive Movement, Elder Tonye James Fuayefika on Monday, said Governor Wike’s alleged incessant contemptuous remarks against Okrikans were, according to him, made to smear Okrika Nation over ownership title of Port Harcourt lands.
Elder Fuayefika recalled that during the commissioning of the Opobo/Nkoro Road, a few days ago, Governor Wike referred to ‘Chief (Dr.) Abiye Sekibo and his people’ as “Land Grabbers”.
“Referring to a highly distinguished Okrika son and Chief, Dr. Abiye Sekibo, Head and Chief of Archin War Canoe House, former Secretary of Rivers State Government and Minister for Transport and his people as Land Grabbers in Port Harcourt is insulting, untrue, abusive and unexpected of a Governor to make such a public pronouncement of a people even under the disguise of a joke, politicking or whatsoever”, he fumed.
“For the umpteenth time, Okrikans are being constrained to correct Governor Wike’s misinformation deliberately in the public over the status of Port Harcourt lands in defiance of subsisting historical facts leading to the acquisition of Port Harcourt City lands by the Colonial masters in the year, 1913”, he said.
Warning that Okrikans have been civil enough to reproach the governor and his clansmen from unfair actions likely to cause discord between the Ikwerre and the Okrikans in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area, Fuayefika said Governor Wike’s tenure as Governor has in his words, “made Okrikans to regret playing very major role leading to his emergence as the Rivers State Chief Executive”.
Reeling out other instances where the governor allegedly made disparaging remarks against Dr. Abiye Sekibo, Elder Fuayefika said they have become, according to him, insults too many.
“Also, while flagging off the Trans-Kalabari Road, he advised the people of Kalabari Kingdom to cooperate with the contractors handling the project and not to behave like Dr. Abiye Sekibo and his people.
“And now in commissioning the Opobo/Nkoro Road, Governor Wike repeated same contemptuous remarks by saying that “Dr. Abiye Sekibo should leave Austin Opara and his people along in Port Harcourt and face the new Okrika Town under construction because Okrikans like grabbing lands”.
The Okrika reiterated that it is a well-established fact that the city of Port Harcourt is owned by the Diobu-Ikwerre and their Okrika counterparts as was, according to him, dictated in the 1913 & 1928 Hargrove Agreements, urging anyone who had contrary views to approach the courts to prove his or her case.
“We make bold to state that there is no time Okrika people in the three local government areas of Port Harcourt City, Ogu/Bolo and Okrika have been involved in land grabbing. It has to be emphasized that any area claimed or occupied by the Okrikans is not only legitimate but their birthright”, he emphasized, while advising Governor Wike to ‘keep his limits by being decorous in his utterances at public functions as expected of a true gentleman’.
