Ex-Niger Delta Militant leader, Alhaji Asari Dokubo has said that by law, only Ijaws, Ogonis, are Niger Deltans.
According to him, any Ikwerre, Urhobo, Bini, Ibibio or Itsekiri person claiming Niger Delta is trespassing.
He stated this in a video posted on his official Facebook page on Wednesday.
Citing Article 24, paragraph 4 of the Henry Willink Minority Commission Report of 1978, he said that the old Rivers Province without Port Harcourt and Ahaoda and the Western Ijaws are the original Niger Delta region.
The Willink’s report characterized the Niger Delta as infrastructurally and generally poor, backward and neglected, and advised the government to establish a Federal Board to address the problems of the area.
Dokubo said that Opobo Province which covered Ogoni and Andoni areas were not included in Willink’s report as Niger Delta area.
He, however, said that when Tafala Belewa set up the Niger Delta Basin Authority, he included the Opobo Province which comprised Opobo, Ikot Abasi, Andoni and Ogoni.
He said that by the recommendation of the report, only Ijaws of Rivers province of that time which include Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa State, Brass and Degema, with the Western division in the Warri Province are Niger Deltans.
He said those who have been talking about Niger Delta do not know what it is, adding that only in the report was where Niger Delta was mentioned.
According to Dokubo, Murtala Mohammed destroyed the Niger Delta special area by creating basins everywhere. He added that the elites from the Ijaw areas failed to react out of fear.
Dokubo said that Niger Delta is alien to the current Nigerian laws, adding that only in Willink’s report was an area known as Niger Delta established.
He added that President Olusegun Obasanjo created the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, and added all oil-producing states.
The ex-agitator said that going by Obasanjo’s interpretation if oil is discovered in Bauchi, the state will be added to NDDC.
