By Mudiaga Affe
A coalition of youth groups in Benin City has condemned an alleged plan by the Edo State Government to cede the Gelegele seaport to the Ijaw indigenes in the riverine community.

It was learned that the state government on Friday organized a meeting at a hotel in Benin mainly dominated by the Ijaw settlers in the riverine community with almost no representation from the Benin landowners.

In a joint statement made available on Sunday by the President, Benin Solidarity Movement, Curtis Ugbo, President, One Love Foundation, Patrick Eholor, and President, National Union of Edo South Youth, Osaghae Amadin, the coalition lamented that they cannot allow tenants take over their land.

The statement read in part, “We can’t watch tenants take over our right with the help of those representatives of the BRP. The Okao of Gelegele wasn’t invited neither were any of his Benin people notified the Ohunkun of Ughoton.

“The Ijaw cannot decide the name of the Port for us and we do not want to hold meetings with settlers anymore. A foot has not been sold and those various names of communities are fictitious not known to the Oba of Benin and the Benin people.

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“There is a Supreme Court verdict over Gelegele and environs. The Gelegele people have the original map used during the Supreme Court case and that is the original map, any attempt to alter the map will be stiffly resisted.

“We will no longer allow the Ijaw tenants continue to threaten violence to the project because nobody has the monopoly of it (violence).”