The Bodo–Bonny Road Liaison Committee has faulted claims by the Chairman of Asarama Division Council of Chiefs, Chief Mark Moses Isaiah Jawakon, on the purported ownership of portions or stretch of land along the on-going Bonny – Bodo Road Project Route.
The Chairman of the Committee, Se Alabo Barr Waripanye Val-Pepple, in a statement, described the claims as spurious, unfounded and indefensible, pointing out that there is no such community known as Asarama or any Andoni Traditional Community along the Bodo – Bonny Road Project Route. The statement said that the settlement status does not give nor accord the Asarama Community or any other Andoni Community any right of claim over land or territory along the Bodo – Bonny road project, as they are mere tenants to Bonny land owners.
“For the avoidance of doubt, let it be known and clearly too that the boundary between Bonny kingdom and Andoni and ipso-facto between Bonny Local Government Area and Andoni LGA is the Andoni River, also locally known and called as Idoni-Toru and nothing more”, it further stated.
According to the statement, the boundary between Bonny and Andoni is the Andoni (Idoni-Toru) river and the project is not in any way close to the said boundary as claimed by the acclaimed Chairman of Asarama Divisional Council of Chiefs.
It further noted that people of Asarama-Andoni Communities who are fishermen settled along the Bonny Channels, and that such does not give them any right of claim or grandstanding posture which the Asarama Divisional Council of Chiefs appeared to display, lay claims or make demands, stressing that there is no Andoni community, landlord or landowner along the Opobo channel or along the stretch of land between Bodo in Gokana Local Government Area and Bonny LGA.
“We recall that such bogus and futile attempts had been made earlier to rename the Bodo-Bonny Road Project. It is surprising that this claim is being repeated in another form even when the masquerades are fully aware that their claim is unfounded, baseless and of no effect whatsoever”,. He added that their purported claim and threat lack foundation and is inconsequential and should therefore be discountenanced and disregarded despite their effrontery and whimsical gullibilities.
The statement also noted that Asarama and Andoni Communities could be accessed by the road, and therefore as neighbors, they should not truncate the process by becoming a cog in the wheel of the road project to Bonny that is aimed at making Bonny equally accessible by road with other riverine communities. He appealed to the Asarama Divisional Council of Chiefs to allow peace to reign so the project could be completed within the stipulated time.
The Committee therefore, called on the federal government, Julius Berger PLC, the Governor of River State, Chief Nyesom Wike, all law enforcement agents to call the Asarama Divisional Council of Chiefs to order, in order to forestall any possible mayhem and destruction of lives and property among the two communities.