The crisis of confidence rocking the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) leadership deepened on Sunday with a faction led by the council’s Deputy President, Saviour Olali, warning Ijaw youths to ignore calls by the President, Peter Igbifa to sustain the protest against the Federal Government’s refusal to reconstitute the NDDC board.
The faction in a statement signed by Olali and the IYC spokesman, Ebilade Ekerefe gave the warning to Ijaw youths against the planned resumption of protest on Monday.
It would be recalled that IYC members commenced the protest on Wednesday and blocked the Mbiama section of the East-West Road as well as shut the NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt and state offices in Bayelsa, Delta, Akwa Ibom, among others.
On Friday, Olali and Ekerefe announced the suspension of the three-day protest with effect from 5pm, adding that the decision was reached after consultations with critical Ijaw stakeholders and the Ijaw National Congress (INC) leadership.
But Igbifa countered the decision and declared that Ijaw youths would continue to occupy the region until the board of the commission had been inaugurated.
However, Olali and Ekerefe said in the statement on Sunday that the protest remained suspended and insisted that the resumption of such action “would be against the collective decision of Ijaw nation.”
The two Ijaw youth leaders reiterated that the decision to suspend the three-day protest was as a result of “due consultation with leaders, stakeholders from the region, especially from the parent body of IYC, the INC.”
They said, “The decision of Ijaw elders is still in place and any action against the collective decision of the Ijaw elders and youths is an affront and disobedience to the Ijaw nation. Our decision is based on what has transpired within this period of the protest, there is need for us to go back, call for a convention for us to review plans, strategy and take proper decision.”
The statement warned Ijaw youths to “discountenance the statement attributed to the President, Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide, Peter Timothy Igbifa in defiance to the collective decision of the Ijaw Elders and youths that the ongoing #OccupyNigerDelta protest will continue on Monday across the states in the region.”
(Daily Independent)
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