Benin Solidarity Movement (BSM) worldwide has warned those it describes as settlers in Iko in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State that “false information, blackmail and character assassination cannot wipe away history no matter how hard they try.”
The group gave the warning in a statement signed by its President, Elder Curtis Eghosa Ugbo, while reacting to insinuation been peddled by some elements in the locality that the aborigines in neighbouring Obazuwa Community are trouble makers.
The statement read in part, “these elements, majorly settlers with some betraying Benins, have resorted to accusing the people of Obazuwa, who are aborigines as trouble making people.
“This is a claim that’s far from the truth because Iko Community is controlled by the Enogie of Obazuwa in Ovia North East Local Government Area, who is the traditional head of the locality.
“From history the Ijaws benefitted from the large heart of the Oba of Benin who gave them a settlement for their fishing business but they have now become major land rivals which they have termed to be their ancestral land.”
Going further, the BSM said: “Let us sound it very loud and clear to the Ijaw settlers who vis-a-vis are customary tenants to the Oba of Benin Kingdom that there is no town or community in Benin Kingdom called Ikoro in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State.
“And they should also know that they are not the only tribes that are settled in that locality and for all we care the irritant IYC may be talking of a community that’s situated in Bayelsa State acclaimed as a homogenous Ijaw State.”
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