URHOBO GROUP SOUNDS ALARM: UPU REDUCED TO SOCIAL GATHERING: CALLS FOR UNITY, RECONCILIATION WITH IBORI TO REBUILD OUR GLORY
…..RELEASE BY JOINT ASSOCIATION OF NIGER DELTA ETHNIC YOUTHS (JANDY), URHOBO NATION CHAPTER
The Joint Association of Niger Delta Ethnic Youths (JANDY), Urhobo Nation Chapter, under the leadership of Hon. Mark Ikpuri, National President, Joint Association of Niger Delta Ethnic Youths (JANDY), Urhobo Nation Chapter, has issued a clarion call to Urhobo people at home and in the Diaspora to unite and seek immediate reconciliation with the iconic former Delta State Governor, Chief James Onanefe Ibori, even as it raises a red flag over the alarming decline of the once-mighty Urhobo Progress Union (UPU), which it laments has been reduced to a mere social gathering bereft of its original purpose and direction.
Accordint to a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja, by Chief Mathias Efe Olowu, the Media Consultant, The group expressed profound dismay at the steady erosion of UPU’s relevance, blaming the recent leadership crisis, particularly the shambolic last election, for sowing seeds of avoidable division among Urhobo sons and daughters, while dragging this revered cultural institution into the muddy waters of partisan politics and thereby undermining its sacred mandate to foster unity, progress, and development across Urhobo land.
“UPU was never meant to be a political battlefield,” the statement thundered. “What we are seeing today is not who we are as Urhobo people.”
Recalling the golden era under Chief Ibori’s governorship, when UPU stood tall in structure, dignity, and stability, free from meddlesome interferences that propelled the Urhobo nation forward, the group painted a grim picture of today’s reality, where despite hosting vast oil facilities and pipelines in the resource-rich Niger Delta, many Urhobo communities wallow in abject struggle, reduced to begging neighbors for economic survival, a fate they insist is unworthy of a people blessed with such abundant natural wealth from their soil.
The statement spotlighted the transformative miracles of the Ibori administration, which turned sleepy settlements like Osubi, Ugolo, Okukoko, Otokutu, Opete, Agbarho, Udu, Oghara, Abraka, and Mosogar into bustling mega urban cities, igniting economic booms, multiplying opportunities, and birthing millionaires from every corner of Urhobo land right from the first year of the Odidigborigbo era, a legacy that JANDY insists must be revived through urgent unity rather than the current perilous divisions.
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This is no time for bickering but for sober reflection and collective action, the group stressed, urging Urhobo traditional rulers, political leaders, and all stakeholders to transcend personal ambitions and rally for the greater good of the Urhobo nation, while making a heartfelt plea to Chief Ibori himself to forgive past hurts and re-engage his people for the sake of enduring unity and development.
“We must come together under one solid pillar, and that pillar right now is the Odidigborigbo of the universe. This is about our future,” the statement declared passionately.
JANDY implored Urhobo kings, our revered Ajuvwes, to spearhead the reconciliation drive with Odidigborigbo, positioning Chief Ibori to reclaim his rightful place at the helm, rescue Urhobo from this low ebb, and rebuild robust socio-political institutions that will serve both present generations and those yet unborn.
