Communities Cry Out Over Marginalisation

The non-Kalabari communities in Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State have cried out over what they called the political marginalisation, strangulation and oppression meted out to them.

The non-Kalabari communities are Degema, Bille, Bukuma and Usokun.

Speaking when representatives of the four communities on a sensitisation visit met with the Amanyanabo of Bille Kingdom, represented by Chief Denis Minabakama, the group’s chairman, Barrister Steve Marcus, decried a situation where a non-Kalabari person has never held any position of trust or substantive political position in the local government since its creation.

According to Marcus, the situation has negatively affected the four communities politically, economically and psychologically, pointing out that the four non-Kalabari communities have not benfited in any way from the local government authority and the state government.

“Since the creation of Degema Local Government Area, no non-Kalabari person has been chairman, council secretary, all vital state positions are occupied by the Kalabaris to languish in abject poverty and lack of infrastructural facilities,” he said.

Appealing to the state government to come to their aid, the communities solicited the support of Kalabari Chiefs, Youth and women in the struggle for emancipation.

Responding on behalf of the Bille Council of Chiefs, the chairman, Chief Denis Minabakama, said “we have endorsed this movement to liberate the non-Kalabaris from the shackles of oppression “, pointing out that some documents have been sent out in respect of the brazen maltreatment meted out to them in the local government.

Shedie Okpara