The Executive Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri, has inaugurated a six-man Ijaw National Congress (INC) Reconciliation Committee.
Governor Diri, while inaugurating the committee at Government House, Yenagoa, mandated them to reconcile disputing individuals and interests within the INC and restore the ethos of the founding fathers.
The Governor charged the committee to come up with recommendations that will be free, fair, and all-embracing in order to strengthen the cords that bind the Ijaw nation together rather than divide it.
His words: “The strength of the Ijaw Nation is not in the loudness of our disputes, but in our unity.”
The six-member committee comprises: from the Eastern Zone, Dr. Goddy Damnabo and former Deputy Governor of Rivers State, Alabo Gabriel Tobi; from the Western Zone, former Minister of Police Affairs, Brodrick Bozimo, and former President of the INC, Chief J.B. Fumudor; and from the Central Zone, former Director-General of the DSS, Matthew Seiyefa, and former Nigerian Ambassador, Boladei Igali.
To manage the secretariat are former Administrator of the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme, Kingsley Kuku, and former Commissioner for Ijaw National Affairs, Erasmus Patrick.
In an acceptance speech, the chairman of the committee, Mr. Mathew Seiyefa, thanked Governor Diri for finding them worthy to carry out the assignment and promised to deliver on the mandate.
Dignitaries at the event included the Bayelsa State Deputy Governor, Dr. Peter Akpe, Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Nimbofa Ayawei, Acting Chief of Staff, Irorodamie Komonibo, Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mrs. Ebiowou Koku-Obiyai and other top government functionaries.