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The Ijaw tribe has been declared an absolute majority in the Niger Delta by Julius Pondi.
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The declaration is a rebuttal to Nyesom Wike’s claims that Ijaws are minority in Delta and Rivers states.
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Wike also claimed that Ijaws cannot produce governor in most states in the region.
The member representing Burutu Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Julius Pondi, has declared the Ijaws are majority in Delta and Rivers states.
Pondi made the declaration while responding to the now infamous comment by the FCT minister and former Rivers governor, Nyesom Wike, that Ijaws are minority in both states.
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Wike had also claimed that Ijaws do not constitute the majority of ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta, stressing that the notion was a fallacy.
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Reacting to the misleading comment by Wike that has already received wide condemnation, Pondi maintained that the minister’s jibe was perhaps born from a place of ignorance.
Speaking on a Thursday during a visit by leaders of Burutu Local Government Area to the family of late Ijaw leader Pa Edwin Clark, Pondi said;
“The Ijaws in Delta State are not minority and we can never be a minority. The Ijaws in Rivers are not a minority. We have ten local government areas.
“Before the balkanization of Rivers and Bayelsa, Ijaws already produced governor twice. So, we are in a position of comfort to aspire for governorship positions, and we will get it.”
On Wike’s attempt to denigrate Clark’s influence in Delta State that the elder statesman was unable to produce a governor until his death, Pondi said;
“For Delta State, when our time comes, it will come, and we will produce the governor. But for record purposes, Ijaws are not minority in Delta nor Rivers,” Pondi stressed.
