Ominimini’s Urhobo Oil and Gas Claims, False, Provocative -Olu of Warri Rep.

The Sole Representative of the Olu of Warri/Liaison to NNPCL, Comrade Collins Oritsetimeyin Edema has tackled Chief Obiuwevbi Ominimini, former Urhobo Commissioner on the board of DESOPADEC and national chairman of Urhobo Oil and Gas Nationality (UROAGAN) over his Urhobo ethnic nationality oil and gas claims contained in a document titled, “Compilation of Urhobo Oil and Gas Facilities, Volume 1,” and transmitted to members of the National Assembly of Urhobo extraction.

The document circulated in the media on June 27, 2024, chronicled oil and gas facilities in Urhoboland across the Niger Delta as claimed by Ominimini.

However, in a counter statement obtained by Warri Sentinel, the Itsekiri ethnic nationality have disagreed with portions of the document claiming oil and gas facilities in Warri kingdom as Urhobo’s, describing it as provocative and misleading to the general public.

The statement duly signed by Mr. Edema dismissed ominimini’s claims that the Urhobo Ethnic nationality has an oil and gas community in Warri South Local Government, declaring that the said “Agbarha Urhobo community” is Omadino land, an Itsekiri community stretching across both Warri South and Warri South-West Local Government Areas.

Also seeking to debunk the claim that “Urhobo people are the highest producers of Oil & Gas in Delta State,” Mr. Edema wondered why Ominimini would make a “bogus claim without quoting or referencing any empirical data or even at least mention the locations of the Wells or oil fields that made Urhobo the largest producer of Oil & Gas.”

He further accused the Urbobo ethnic nationality of “playing the victim card”.

Portions of the statement read;  “The Urhobos needs to stop playing the victims card when in true sense they have marginalised other tribes in Delta State in all ramifications especially the Itsekiri people, annexing our homelands in Delta Central, trying to subsume our people by continously using the Urhobo controlled Delta State government and their population to ensure that all Itsekiri Aboriginal Communities in Delta Central do not have any meaningful projects, developed, or allow to contest for any elective position (despite some of them contributing to the Oil and Gas the Urhobos are laying claim to). 

It continued, “Our homeland in Warri Kingdom (Warri North, Warri South,  Warri South-West) are being threatened daily by the Urhobos with major support from the Ijaws who are envious of the fact that despite all they have done during the Warri Crisis to annex our homeland and Oil Wells, they have fallen short of their targets and expectations.”

On Ominimini’s claim that the Urhobo ethnic nationality is the most marginalized in Nigeria and Urhobo having “little or no presence” in the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC) the Itsekiri rep declared, “This is another fallacy as the Urhobos have been the biggest beneficiary of the NDDC since its inception. This is despite the Urhobos not being eligible/first to produce either the Chairman or Managing Director by the enabling laws before the Itsekiris.

Despite this, the Urhobos have produced Chairmen, Managing Directors, Executive Directors, various Directors, Commissioners, Heads of Departments, more employees than any other ethnic Nationality in Delta State, and probably the Niger Delta.

Finally, we wish to put it on record that the Itsekiri Ethnic Nationality is the most oppressed, marginalised, and disenfranchised in terms of political appointments, citing of critical projects, employment, etc despite us being the highest producers of Oil and Gas in Nigeria.

Despite all of the above, one thing is sure, no tribe in Nigeria can conquer us even with the instrumentality of government,” it ended.

The Full Statement is reproduced below;