The Rivers Ijaw Peoples Congress (RIPCO) has criticized individuals and groups and threatened violence over the Supreme Court judgment on the Rivers political imbroglio.
Rising from a meeting, RIPCO, in a statement signed by its leader, Senator George Thompson Sekibo; DG, Dr Rowland Sekibo; and Secretary General, Hon. Erastus Awortu, deprecated the language of threat to violence by Professor Benjamin Okaba—led Ijaw National Congress, following an unsubstantiated impeachment plot against Gov Fubara by the Rivers State House of Assembly led by Speaker Martins Amaewhule.
They advised Okaba and INC to prevail on Gov. Fubara to fully comply with the Supreme Court ruling instead of stoking ethnic and tribal fires.
In a 10-point communique, RIPCO said, “However, it is deeply troubling that specific individuals, including Professor Benjamin Ogele Okaba, the President of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), among others, have resorted to threats of violence and destruction, including targeting vital oil and gas infrastructure in Rivers State and the wider Niger Delta region.
“These calls for violence are not only reckless but also profoundly misguided. It is one thing to disagree with a judicial decision; still, it is entirely different to resort to destructive and unlawful actions that threaten the lives and livelihoods of innocent people in the Niger Delta and Nigeria as a whole.”
It noted, “The Supreme Court Judgment is not based on ethnicity. The Supreme Court’s judgment was not based on ethnic considerations or the notion of the Ijaws opposing another ethnic group. It was rendered strictly in accordance with the Constitution and the rule of law.
“This was a judicial intervention in a legal dispute, not an ethnic or political contest. We all must understand and respect the supremacy of the law.”
