500 N’Deltans Trapped In Gabon

Following the renewed wave of violence against Nigerians in Gabon, about 500 Niger Delta indigenes are trapped in that country.

A breakdown of this figure shows that 35 of those trapped are Rivers indigenes.

The Weekend Tide learnt that the renewed wave of violence follows accusation by some Gabonese that the current president of the country Ali Bongo Odimbo is a Nigerian of Eastern extraction.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Weekend Tide in Port Harcourt, the spokesman of the United Niger Delta Refugees in Gabon, Mr Nwilee Joshua said that the Gabonese are saying that Ali Bongo Odimbo is not the biological son of late President Omar Bongo Odimbo.

According to him, it was the view expressed by the Gabonese that the president was adopted from Biafra during the civil war in Nigeria.

Mr Nwile Joshua said that it was this unpopular view that has ignited the wrath of many Gabonese against mostly the indigenes of Niger Delta, stressing that the urgent intervention of governments of the Niger Delta states will save the situation.

He particularly said that some Rivers females in that country have been raped to death, while some others are being thrown into prison everyday.

Also speaking, the Vice President of the United Niger Delta Refugees in Gabon, Mr Innocent Kagbo lamented the non-challant attitude of the Nigerian embassy in that country towards the indigenes of Niger Delta and appealed to the Rivers State government to come to the aid of the 35 indigenes of the state trapped in that country.

Rivers State Commissioner for Urban Development, Barr Osima Ginah (right), former National President of Nigeria Bar Association, Barr OCJ Okocha (SAN) (left), and Dr Theo Osanakpo (SAN), during a stakeholders’ meeting at Government House, Port Harcourt, recently.