WE WILL TAKE A STAND LATER - IJAW YOUTHS

Ijaw youths are meeting tomorrow to take a definite stand on the loss of the presidency by Dr Goodluck Jonathan in last week’s elections.

The spokesperson for the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Eric Omare, on Friday, said that the group was not satisfied with the turnout of the polls and would seek a new direction for the struggle for resource control.
“The IYC has resolved to call for a national congress of all Ijaw youths on Sunday, 5th April at Tuomo Community in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State, where all the Ijaw youth of the Niger-Delta region would meet to review the outcome of the presidential elections.
“IYC would take a position and determine the next direction of our struggle for self-determination and resource control as enshrined in the historic Kaiama Declaration.
“We call on all Ijaw youths to be alert and ready to heed the call to the service of the Ijaw nation at this crucial time of our history and struggle for survival in the Nigerian state in the face of the grand conspiracy between the north and a section of the south-west to continue to suppress and exploit the resource of the Ijaw nation.
“We recall that when President Jonathan, an Ijaw and from the south-south, won an internationally acclaimed free, fair and credible election in 2011, General Muhammadu Buhari and his people never at any time congratulated or supported President Jonathan.
“Instead, they killed hundreds of innocent Nigerians and fought President Jonathan from the day he became the acting president of Nigeria in 2010 until the north conspired with a section of the south-west to take over the presidency from President Jonathan and the minorities of the south-south in an election fraught with irregularities.
“It is also significant to note that none of the northern socio-cultural groups such as the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and others congratulated or supported the administration of President Jonathan.
“Northerners created Boko Haram and blamed it on President Jonathan deliberately to incite the northern populace against him and make him unpopular in the 2015 election so as to take back power,” Mr Omare said.