Press Release
The attention of the Proudly Anioma-Proudly Igbo Group of Nigeria, a friendship/family group
of Anioma people and their eastern Igbo kith and kin has been drawn to a “Press
Release” written by some deluded individuals claiming to speak on behalf of the
entire Anioma people. To begin with, it is important to note that the said
group “Ndi-Anioma” as they call themselves is not the umbrella body of
the Anioma people at home and in the Diaspora. This responsibility lies with
the Izu-Anioma organization head by Brig. Gen Alabi Isama (rtd), the Ajieh-Osa,
Anagba and Ochiagha of Utagba land.
In the charter of Izu-Anioma, the Anioma people were not
defined as an “ethnic group” but rather an umbrella body covering the people
identified in the course of Nigerian nationhood as West-Niger Igbos, Western
Igbos, then Midwest Igbos , Bendel Igbos and now its often called Delta Igbos.
Anioma is a political identity covering the entire area and was coined by the
venerable Chief Dennis Osadebay in the late 1970s. It is important as well to
note that our leader, Gen. Isama has stated in several fora and without any bit
of contradiction that Anioma people are Igbos.
We of the Proudly Anioma-Proudly Igbo organization
concur with his assertions. Therefore any claim, a self-seeking one for that
matter by a group of political wannabes parading themselves as “the umbrella
body of Anioma people” should not be taken by the general public seriously.
Their rant is not worth a pinch of salt. We are aware that those parading
themselves as “umbrella body of all Anioma people” have their loyalties tied to
a particular political party in Nigeria.
With such interests, their unfounded claims should not be taken by the public
seriously.
As stated by one of
our leaders Col Achuzie, the Ikemba of Asaba, we believe that the issues
leading to the end of Biafran war and the pacification which followed
thereafter has not assuaged a good percentage of the Igbo people of Nigeria
that they have been fully integrated in the country. Many of them still feel
they have been treated as second-class citizens and there are empirical
evidences to suggest that some of these claims have some taints of truth and
reality in it. Among some of the issues include the slicing off of some Igbo
communities out of core Igbo states and merger to other states. We can give
examples:
1.
The area of Ndoki south covering the present Oyigbo (originally
Obigbo) transferred from the old Aba division
and lumped to Rivers
State in 1976. Also, in
the 1980s, three Ndoki villages namely Ohaobu, Mkpukpuaja and Ogbuagu villages
carved from the then Imo State and lumped to Etim-Ekpo LGA of Akwa Ibom
State. It is noteworthy
to state that Oyigbo LGA apart from Oloibiri was the first place in Nigeria to
produce oil and gas in commercial quantities (at Afam). Unlike Oloibiri which
has dried-up since the 1980s, Afam and other Oyigbo oil-fields keep yielding
vast quantities of petroleum.
2
*Achuzia
2. Egbema communities now in Rivers
State. Egbema has 16
villages and out of these 16 villages , 3 namely Mgbede, Aggah and Okwuzi has
the largest reserves of oil and gas in the community. This is apparently the
reason they were lumped to Rivers while the other 13 villages were left in Imo State
where they had to contend with more modest reserves of the commodity.
