‘Count Urhobos out of Southern leaders Lagos conference’ —Leaders

The Urhobo Leaders of Thought (ULT) has dissociated itself from the meeting held in Lagos by some representatives of the South-South, South-East and South-West leaders.

Secretary of ULT, Chief Aru Mumakai-Unaga, in a statement signed and made available to journalists on Tuesday in Warri, Delta State, said his group was not consulted hence its rejection of the coalesce.

Mumakai-Unaga fumed at the way Urhobo  were purportedly left out of the meeting, saying the South South representation did not spread across all the ethnic groups in the region.

“We, the Forum of Urhobo Leaders of Though, on behalf of the Urhobo Nation the 5th largest ethnic group in Nigeria wishes to disassociate ourselves from the said meeting. We are not part of that meeting as we were not consulted.

“It would have been necessary that in such a meeting where important issues that affects the multi ethnic nationality in the South-South, South-East and South-West tagged southern Nigeria are discussed, all the ethnic groups would have been invited.

“But in this case, we the Urhobos are not invited, rather few individuals gathered themselves together and styled themselves as southern Nigeria leaders.

“The Urhobo nation cannot be part of some person or group of persons who have personal scores to settle with others and so should not to drag other ethnic nationalities to their perceived differences coming under southern leaders to seek relevance.

“Like as we have said, we were not consulted, indeed the Urhobo were not in the meeting. Those who convened the meeting were not true representatives of the south-south, south-east and south west leaders.

“Therefore, it is our strong view that the decision reached at that meeting does not represent our interest nor binding on us,” the Urhobo leaders noted.