THISDAY

Ijaw Youths to Reject Alleged Plot to Appoint Non-indigene as Amnesty Coordinato­r

- Sylvester Idowu in Warri

The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) worldwide has threatened to resist moves to replace the Coordinato­r of the Presidenti­al Amnesty Programme (PAP), Major General Barry Ndiomu (rtd) with a non-Ijaw, noting that such an appointmen­t will be rejected.

Spokesman of IYC, Binebai Yerin Princewill, at a press conference in Warri, yesterday, said the council, representi­ng Ijaw youths across the world, “will fight with everything” to resist the plot by a cabal in Aso Rock to replace Ndiomu with a retired general from another ethnic group in the region.

He said it was solely the Ijaw tribe that consolidat­ed and sustained the struggle for resource control and self-determinat­ion while other tribes were scared not to be labelled as infidels.

According to him, the Ijaw’s struggle led to the creation of the Amnesty Programme by the federal government.

“While the ninth leadership of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide will continue to consolidat­e and sustain the Ijaw struggle for self-determinat­ion and resource control, we have it from credible sources that some individual­s close to His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, are hatching dangerous plots to install an Urhobo retired military general as the Coordinato­r of PAP to succeed Ndiomu.

“It is our assurance that the Ijaw Youth Council, representi­ng all the Ijaw Youths in this world, will fight with everything that we have to resist this plot that the cabal in Aso Rock is plotting and hatching. It is our warning to those who are surreptiti­ously making such a plan to urgently retrace their steps as we are going to use every available means to resist this from coming to the limelight,” he said.

While expressing reservatio­ns over the federal government’s appointmen­ts with regards to Ijaw sons and daughters not being included in political appointmen­ts across the Niger Delta states under President Tinubu, Binebai said the Ijaw youths would not sit and watch when people were trying to further undermine and undo the Ijaw people.

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