—Directs FG to implement 2014 Confab

The Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide (IYC) has warned that it would not allow any secessionist group such as the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) to cause chaos in Bayelsa and other Niger Delta states in the name of #EndSARS protests.

It condemned the attacks on the police and security agencies in Rivers State, which led to the death of some policemen, including Mr. Oliver Igbani, a police inspector from Otuokpoti in Bayelsa State.

IYC spokesman Comrade Ebilade Ekerefe, speaking yesterday at a news conference in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, urged the Federal Government to begin the process of implementing the 2014 National Conference report as part of measures to address the myriad of challenges confronting the country.

He called for an independent judicial panel to investigate violence and killings in parts of the country during the #EndSARS protest, including the beheading of Mr. Oliver Igbani, a police inspector from Otuokpoti in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, by pro-Biafran youths in Oyigbo area of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Ekerefe said the answer to some of the #EndSARS unrest and other contentious issues experienced across the country could be quickly resolved with the implementation of issues bordering on federalism, resource control and restructuring.

He said: “Ijaw youths are unrepentant apostles of resource control. It is on this note that we support the gold mining of Zamfara State Government, as this is the hallmark of true federalism.

“All we ask for is that the Niger Delta people should also be allowed to control our oil and gas resources. It is double standard and provocative when the Federal Government criminalises oil bunkering in the Niger Delta and supports gold mining in Zamfara State.”