The people of Gelegele, Ikoro and Abiala communities in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State have frowned at a recent advertorial in a national newspaper (names withheld) which tagged them as Ijaw settlers.
In a statement signed by the leadership of the Ijaw Youth Vanguard viz Omaghomi Olu-Derimon (PRO), Stanley Aladfin (Gelegele Youth President) and Ofunama Precious (Gelegele Youth Vice-President), the group rejected the idea that Governor Adams Oshiomhole should facilitate the movement of the Okao to his house in Gelegele as proposed in the said advertorial.
On this premise, they called on President Goodluck Jonathan, President-Elect Muhammadu Buhari and indeed all peace-loving Nigerians to call the sponsors of what they tagged the ‘offensive’ advertorial to order in the interest of peace, harmony and good neighbourliness.
The Ijaw Youth Vanguard stressed that the ideas proposed in the advertorial, if not rejected, could act as a setback for the peaceful co-existence of the Ijaws in the above mentioned communities and their neighbours of other ethnic nationalities.
“We wish to inform the Nigerian nation for the umpteenth time that the Ijaws in Gelegele, Ikoro and other communities around them have lived in their God-given present locations for over 400 years,” the Ijaw Youth Vanguard posited.