By Kelechi Esogwa-Amadi
Roughly four weeks after the reported adoption of Sir Siminalayi Fubara as the Ijaw governorship candidate in Rivers State by a group known as Ijaw Wari Worldwide, it appears the controversy generated by the action is not yet over.
Recall that the Ijaw National Congress (IYC) Eastern Zone had debunked the reported adoption of Sir Fubara as the sole governorship candidate of the Rivers Ijaw people under the aegis of Ijaw Wari Worldwide.
In a statement signed by its chairman, HRH King Nla Iraron JP, Ede Obolo II, the IYC Eastern Zone dissociated itself from the adoption of Fubara by the Ijaw Wari group, describing as an aberration the group’s indiscriminate use of the name ‘Ijaw’ to give the impression that the adoption was a collective decision of the entire Ijaw nation.
The IYC Eastern Zone had also deemed Ijaw Wari’s use of the Ijaw national flag as illegal.
The group’s statement partly reads:
“We the executives and members of the Ijaw National Congress, Eastern Zone, dissociate ourselves from the purported endorsement by faceless Wassap organisations that used Ijaw as a subterfuge coined Ijaw wari.
“Using the name outside the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) and the Ijaw National Congress (INC) to hoodwink the society is a misnomer and an aberration to the sensibility of the Ijaw Nation.
“However we agitate for a Rivers State governor from Ijaw extraction, we desire a diplomatic and subtle collaboration within and other ethnic nationalities of the state not an imposition.
“The use of Ijaw National flag to seem an Ijaw statement in the purported endorsement of Sim Fubara is an illegality.
“The Ijaw Wari and its conveners are advised forthwith to desist from usurping responsibilities of the Ijaw National Congress and other Ijaw statutory organizations as the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), including the use of its flags and emblems in or not to desecrate the sanctity and unity of the Ijaw nation. They are also advised to stop the use of Ijaw Wari as a social media platform…”
But while many think that the controversy trailing the adoption of the Rivers PDP governorship candidate by Ijaw Wari Worldwide is over, an allegation has propped up linking the leader of the group, Somina Wokoma, to a fraud case.
According to a source, who spoke under anonymity on Thursday, Wokoma and two others – Ikenna Okwukwe and Boma Morgan Ezekiel – were alleged to have defrauded the O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation to the tune of N60,427,000.00 between December 2012 and November 2014, a case for which they were arrested and arraigned at the Rivers State High Court, Port Harcourt, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on July 31, 2015.
The source further revealed that in arraigning the trio, the EFCC placed a 14-count charge bordering on conspiracy and stealing on their heads, adding that it was discovered that one of the threesome, Ikenna Okwukwe, used his position as then accounts officer to the O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation to facilitate the financial fraud.
The source therefore wondered how a man of questionable character should use the name ‘Ijaw’ for personal gains, adding: “At no time did the Ijaws in Rivers State meet to adopt any candidate as their sole representative in the forthcoming governorship election.”
While efforts to get the leader of Ijaw Wari, Somina Wokoma, to respond to the allegation remain ongoing, a PDP supporter of Rivers Ijaw extraction has, however, dismissed the allegation as the handiwork of enemies of progress from the opposition.
Also pleading for anonymity, the PDP supporter said: “What else do you expect from the opposition? They can go to any length in their propaganda. They should leave Ijaw Wari leaders alone. We’re with them and Sim Fubara will win.”
