GOVERNANCE

Former Governor James Ibori Punctures

<h4>Former Governor James Ibori Punctures</h4>&NewLine;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;<a href="https&colon;//openlife&period;ng/">OpenLife</a> Nigeria reports that former governor James Ibori of Delta State has added his voice to the raging controversial &&num;8220&semi;sexual&&num;8221&semi; festival in Ozoro&period;&NewLine;In the past days, there were reports that at least, six female students of Southern Delta University in Delta State were sexually harassed during a traditional festival in Ozoro, Isoko North Local Government Area&period; &NewLine;This information was availed by the Students’ Union Government (SUG)&period;&NewLine;The SUG President, Oribelua Precious, added that the union was still compiling reports&period; &NewLine;The SUG leader noted that some of the affected students had already returned home since the institution was not in session&period;&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;About six of our female students have so far come forward&period; &NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;They said they were sexually harassed&period; Some of them also lost personal belongings during the incident,” he stated&period;&NewLine;Community authorities also aligned with the SUG’s account&period; The President-General of Ozoro Kingdom, Chief Berkeley Asiafa, attributed the incident to hoodlums who allegedly hijacked the festival&period;&NewLine;Asiafa said the disturbance occurred during the Aluedo festival in Uruamudhu quarters, a traditional rite believed to address infertility and promote prosperity in the community&period;&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There was no rape&period; What happened was harassment by hoodlums who took advantage of the situation,” he said&period;&NewLine;He explained that the festival restricts participation to married women and others seeking fertility blessings, adding that some youths exploited the restriction to target women found outside during the event&period;&NewLine;According to him, three victims confirmed to the Delta State Commissioner of Police that they were sexually molested during a visit to the community&period;&NewLine;He further disclosed that some victims were chased, assaulted, and robbed&period; In one instance, a young woman reportedly had her clothes torn, while another claimed she was dispossessed of â¦10,000&period;&NewLine;Reacting through a statement titled&colon; &NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;THE OZORO FESTIVAL INCIDENT&colon; AN URHOBO-ISOKO PERSPECTIVE, Ibori said&colon;&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;I have generally refrained from intervening in policy or public matters&period; However, this issue is far too serious to ignore&period;&NewLine; I speak from a position of personal experience, having lived my entire life in Urhobo Land, including my eight-year tenure as Governor of Delta State&period;&NewLine; I must confess that this is the first time I am hearing of a festival of this nature&period;&NewLine;You can imagine my shock when I was contacted about this matter two days ago&period; My initial reaction was, &&num;8220&semi;This cannot be true, but let me verify and revert&period;&&num;8221&semi; Every right-thinking person must condemn violence in any form, especially when the victim is a defenseless person&period;&NewLine;I personally made several efforts to ascertain the veracity of the social media reports and obtained an account from the traditional institution in Ozoro&period;&NewLine; From the facts available to me, even the custodian of our tradition whose authority is required for such festivals was not consulted&period;&NewLine; It is therefore unfair to ascribe such violence to the entire Isoko people, and most unfortunate that the Urhobo people have also been implicated&period;&NewLine;One commentator even made a definitive pronouncement implicating the Ekene festival in orgies unleashed on girls and women&period; This is totally untrue&period; &NewLine;Festivals among Urhobo and Isoko people, apart from being celebratory, are woven around historical and spiritual motifs&period; &NewLine;They memorialize past events, reinforce belief systems, and are typically anchored in an essence sustained by strong moral values&period;&NewLine;What happened is condemnable, and it is commendable that security agencies have now intervened to unravel what really transpired&period; &NewLine;It is my hope that this investigation will set the record straight&colon; there is no &&num;8220&semi;rape festival&&num;8221&semi; among Urhobo and Isoko people&period;&NewLine;Furthermore, I will work with the VC of the University and the Ozoro traditional institution to engage the youth so that this serves as a clear signal that actions that degenerate our values, our cultural norms and the role of women in our society will not be tolerated&period;&NewLine;

Openlife Reporter