Former Governor James Ibori Punctures

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