GELEGELE: We are aborigines, never left our land, Bini group tells Ijaw

The land ownership tussle between the Binis and Ijaws in Edo and Delta states seems unending as another

party, The Edo N’Ibaromi Group has joined the fray.

Reacting to a recent newspaper publication credited to the Ijaw People Development Initiative, IPDI, in Warri, where it threatened that the Ijaw tribe was prepared to defend its territorial lands in the state against ‘Bini invaders’, the group, in a statement signed by Osazee Amas Edobor and Imasuen Amowie Marvis, warned against further aggression and encroachment on Bini lands by the Ijaws, who they describe as troublesome and lawless.

The Edo N’Ibaromi Group, said contrary to the claim of the Ijaws, as reinforced by J. U. Egharevba’s in his book: Short History of Benin, which cited that: ‘The Binis migrated from Egypt, came through Sudan, then stopped at Ile-Ife; On getting to Benin, met some people (ferrymen) which they assumed to be Ijaw people’, the Binis never, we repeat, never left our land. Therefore, we are the aborigines of this land.’’

On the disputed Gelegele land, it said: ‘’They should ask their elders who the Edos are, in terms of war. We will prove to them that our level of exposure has not reduced our strength. We assure them that no gunshots will be fired at Gelegele as we have ways of dealing with people like the Ijaws.”