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Tag: Ijaw Youths

  • Urhobo Renaissance Society frowns at incessant attacks by Ijaw Youths

    Urhobo Renaissance Society frowns at incessant attacks by Ijaw Youths

    The Urhobo Renaissance Society (URS) operating as a body representing the people of Urhobo in Delta state has kicked against the attack of its people living in Aladja in Udu Local Government Area of the state by persons suspected to be Ijaw youths in the Ogbe-Ijoh in Warri South-West Local Government.
    According to URS, the incessant attacks by the Ijaw Youths have led to loss of many lives and properties in the Urhobo community.
    This was made known via a statement signed by the URS president, Professor Hope Eghagha and Secretary of the group, Dr. John Uwa.
    The statement reads:  ”The Urhobo Renaissance Society (URS) which is a congregation of Urhobo sons and daughters across the globe has noticed with consternation the ongoing unwarranted and unprovoked attacks on the Urhobo people of Aladja in Udu Local Government Area by armed Ijaw youths of Ogbe-Ijoh in Warri South-West Local Government Area in Delta State. The present attacks that have led to avoidable loss of properties and lives were as usual orchestrated by the tendency of the Ogbe-Ijoh people to lay claims to a land that rightly belongs to the Aladja people.
    ”It is needless to say that the Urhobo count among the most hospitable people in today’s world and, have, in their long history accommodated people from other ethnic nationalities, the Ijaws inclusive. Part of the narrative of the Urhobo tendency to accommodate other people enabled them to accommodate the Ijaws in parts of Aladja. Sadly, the Urhobo character of being her neighbour’s keeper has become a tool with which the Ogbe-Ijoh people use to fight them.
    ”Previous skirmishes and their resolutions point to the truth that the Ogbe-Ijoh people have neither land nor any heritage in Aladja. The narrative has been constant that the Urhobo spirit of accommodation and hospitality made the Ogbe-Ijoh people feel at home with their hosts for many years now. Arising from this is intermarriage, linguistic bond, friendship, trade and other indices of socialization which the Aladja and Ogbe-Ijoh people have had to share in common. They have come to live as one until mischief makers in recent times invoked the spirit of division and feud among the people.
    ”We hereby call on both the State and the Federal Governments to decisively step into the fracas and bring it to an end. The relevant security agencies must show professionalism as they intervene to put an end to this unnecessary feud.
    ”Right now, we are constrained to raise alarm that the officers and men of the Nigerian Army led by Major Solomon Nwakuda deployed to the conflict zone have been less than professional as they not only look the other way while Ogbe-Ijoh launches attacks on Aladja, but also take sides in subjugating the Aladja people. A more worrisome dimension has been the recruitment of herdsmen by the Ogbe-Ijoh people while the Army plays the ostrich. These acts must stop now”.
  • Board: Ijaw youths shut NDDC office, block East-West road after expiration of one month ultimatum to FG

    Board: Ijaw youths shut NDDC office, block East-West road after expiration of one month ultimatum to FG

    Protesting members of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) have sealed the office of the Niger Delta Development Commission in Bayelsa State over the Federal Government’s failure to constitute the agency’s board.

    This follows the expiration of the one-month ultimatum which they have given to the Federal Government to constitute and inaugurate a substantive board for the NDDC.

    TheNewsGuru.com, TNG reports that the group issued the ultimatum earlier in April and threatened that they will disrupt socio-economic activities in the region if President Muhammadu Buhari fails to meet the deadline.

    The youths made good of their threat on Wednesday morning as they locked the gate of the NDDC building and staged a protest in Yenagoa, the state capital.

    The youths insist they will not open the NDDC building until the substantive board is constituted.

    They also blocked some roads leading to the NDDC office causing gridlock among motorists and commuters.

    Vice-Chairman of the group, Kockmann Kurobo explained the importance of the Federal Government constituting the board immediately.

    He said the use of interim administrators to run the affairs of the NDDC is depriving the region of equal representation which undermines even development.

    The youths also called for the immediate release of their President, Peter Igbifa, who is alleged to have been kidnapped yesterday in Port Harcourt.

    Igbifa was on his way to the International Airport Port Harcourt on Tuesday to board a flight to Abuja for a meeting when masked gunmen reportedly blocked his vehicle, seized him, and took him away.

  • UPDATED: Ijaw youths shut down 10 telecom masts in Bayelsa

    UPDATED: Ijaw youths shut down 10 telecom masts in Bayelsa

    A Task Force of the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC), Central Zone, on Monday raided and shut down facilities belonging to telecommunication companies in Bayelsa State following unresolved disputes on awards of quick-win contracts.
    The task force, which was set up by the IYC zonal Chairman, Kennedy Olorogun, picketed facilities belonging to MTN, GLO, Airtel, 9th Mobile and other telecommunication companies across Yenagoa metropolis.
    Hundreds of the youths stormed 10 telecom masts and disconnected them, leaving subscribers stranded and the affected companies losing millions of Naira.
    The youths, who chanted solidarity songs, said they would no longer allow the companies to continue with the practice of awarding their jobs to only non-indigenes especially contracts to supply diesel to their facilities.
    The Olorogun-led IYC has been at loggerheads with telecom companies operating in the state following discoveries by the council that the firms engaged only non-indigenes in their jobs and contracts.
    IYC wrote many letters to the management of the telecom companies on the need to correct the imbalance insisting that the council would no longer tolerate the companies’ practice of outsourcing diesel supply to only non-indigenes in the state.
    Following lack of responses to all the letters, Olorogun in separate letters issued 14-day ultimatum to the companies to act or risk disruption of their operations in the state.
    Olorogun said the picketing occurred because the ultimatum expired about three days ago but the companies failed to act to avert the threat.
    He said: “The companies were playing with us. They failed to act. Instead, they wanted to bribe me but I am not the kind of leader that collects bribe. We want them to do the right thing. They should address the issues. We are hosting their facilities. They can’t be giving all their jobs to outsiders”.
    He warned that the Monday action was a tip of the iceberg adding that massive disconnections would hit the companies if they failed to address their grievances.
    Shortly after the picketing, communication network failures were recorded in most parts of the capital city as subscribers living in the affected areas could no longer make or receive calls.
    In one of the letters sent to the MTN Telecommunication company, Bayelsa State branch, Olorogun reminded the firm of previous correspondences indicating interest of IYC to be part of some of its empowerment schemes.
    Addressing MTN, the letter said: “The council is aware that it is non-indigenes that are doing all the jobs and supplies in the company.
    “The desire of the council to be a partaker in the economic opportunities in your company such as the supply of Automative Gas Oil (AGO) popularly known as diesel and other basic and fundamental supplies going on in your company are legitimate demands that ought not to be contentious.
    “These are embedded in your corporate social responsibility to your host communities and area of operations in line with the Local Content Act 2010. The pecuniary benefits derivable from these economic opportunities would assist the council to organise workshops, seminars and assist indigent members of the council.
    “Having discovered that you have elected to treat our request with disdain and your hostile disposition to our peaceful approach is standing as an obstacle towards any meaningful engagement with you”.