An Ikwerre group, the Ikwerre Peoples Assembly (IPA), has called on the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to stop a proposed programme, tagged ‘Igbo Fest’, from being organized by the Igbo community in Rivers State.
In an open letter to the Egbetokun, signed by the President and Secretary of the group, Monday Wehere and Opurum Loveday, respectively, the group claimed that the proposed ‘Igbo Fest’ will result in a breakdown of law and order in the state.
“We write to draw your attention to a highly combustible issue that has the potential of threatening the existing law and order in Port Harcourt.
“This emergent threat to law and order is predicated on a provocative proposal by the Igbo community in Port Harcourt to host their Igbo Fest in the city of Port Harcourt on July, 27, 2025, at Model Primary School GRA, Besides Polo Club”, the group wrote.
The group stated that the Ikwerre people are not Igbo, adding that Igbos have five state capitals and numerous other cities where such a programme could take place.
“IPA and indeed all patriotic Ikwerre indigenes stand in strong opposition to this impending gratuitous insult by the community and their plans to use hoodlums to cause the breakdown of law and order,” it alleged.
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The group further claimed that IPA and other affiliate pan-Ikwerre organisations have received credible intelligence report that the Igbo community in Port Harcourt is hell-bent on bringing chaos into Port Harcourt and has perfected hideous plans to import.
The petitioners further claimed that the planners of ‘Igbo Fest’ intend to hide under the guise of the event to declare Rivers State an Igbo state and impose a sit-at-home order in the state.
“This is the secret agenda behind the July 27th celebration”, they maintained.
They insisted that the proposed event would certainly result in a downward slide to social anarchy if it were allowed to proceed.
“We can assure the Rivers State government, security agencies, and sundry stakeholders that the proposed ‘Igbo Fest’ has become the subject of heightened public interest, and the dire consequences of allowing it to proceed will unleash a catastrophic response that may be difficult to contain.
“We are therefore calling on the inspector-general of police to use his good office to abort the impending chaos by putting a stop to the so-called ‘Igbo Fest’ in Port Harcourt”, the group demanded.
Our correspondent reports that the known socio-cultural organization and mouthpiece of the Ikwerre ethnic nationality in Rivers State is the Ogbakor Ikwerre, and a respected Ikwerre son, Senator John Mbata, is currently the President-General of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide.
