IYC NOW A DIVIDED HOME, SPLITS INTO FACTIONS.

Yenagoa - Igoniko Oduma, a reporter of the Independent Newspaper reports that the umbrella body of Ijaw youths, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC)  Worldwide, is embroiled in an internal crisis. All is not well with the council. Indeed, all has not been well with the youths’ body especially after former President Goodluck Jonathan lost the 2015 presidential election to President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to his reports, In late May, a section of the national officers of the IYC announced the suspension of the IYC president, Udengs Eradiri, and the spokesman, Eric Omare. The national officers who signed the letter of suspension  included the National Secretary, Bristol-Alagbariya Emmanuel, Mobilisation Officer, Ekine Egbelekro and the National Legal Adviser, Wisdom Ikuli, Assistant Secretary, Deinkoro George; National Women Leader, Felicia Ngeri and Financial Secretary, Kemepado Alfred.

They  sent the document which they all signed  to the IYC Mobile Parliament, ostensibly for the ratification of the suspension. Although the allegations against Eradiri and  Omare were hazy, the national officers insisted that the duo had lost all moral grounds to continue in office.The haziness of the allegations notwithstanding, investigation revealed that the IYC had been split by the internal conflict.

Independent Newspaper also gathered that the national officers and their ‘collaborators’ struck because they  had the impression that both Eradiri and Omare were allegedly making a lot of pecuniary gains because they were speaking for and on behalf of the IYC while criticising the policies and programmes of President  Buhari, especially on issues concerning the Niger Delta and its underdevelopment. In fact, it is believed that in their quest to have Eradiri and Omare removed from office, the aggrieved national officers were reportedly approached by some powerful elements in the Buhari administration who had been exploring ways of polarizing the IYC.

There were also indications that the conflict had  divided the council along the lines of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who were said to be pulling the strings that had plunged the IYC family into the current trouble. Apart from these, the travails of former militant commander, Government Ekpemupolo alias Tompolo, on one hand, and the emergence of the new militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) , on the other hand, had also widened the division  within the IYC national executive council.

While the president and the spokesman were controlling a pro-Tompolo faction, their opposers were leading the anti-Tompolo group. Tompolo had been battling the Federal Government and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over sundry allegations of contractual fraud amounting to the sum of N47.7billion alongside former Director-General of NIMASA, Patrick Akpobolokemi, who is believed to be very close to the IYC. On the NDA, the two factions were said to be dangerously angling to have the upper hand over surreptitious moves by the Federal Government to designate middlemen that would mediate ceasefire with the rampaging Avengers.

However, the IYC Mobile Parliament at its sitting in Usokun, Degema Local Government Area, Rivers State, presided over by the speaker, Mpkon Anon Ijonama and supported by the  Clerk,  Sunny Ogor , declared the suspension null and void and that it lacked merit and substance because it did not follow due process. It maintained that Eradiri and Omare remained the president and spokesman, respectively. Soon after the Mobile Parliament’s nullification of the suspension, the assistant scribe of the IYC, George Denkoru, who claimed that his  signature was allegedly forged, disassociated himself from the said letter, stressing that he was never part of the conspiracy.

In the wake of the mistrust and crisis of confidence generated by the controversy, the embattled president and the spokesman had been making frantic efforts to redeem their image and that of the IYC, now  viewed by many as a platform for the feathering of personal nests of its officials and allies instead of being a vanguard for the advancement of Ijaw national interests in the Nigerian state. But in a quick reaction, the IYC  described as laughable the purported suspension of Eradiri and  Omare by some members of the national executive council.

The IYC which reacted through a statement by Omare said the youths’ body was a well-structured organisation with a constitution defining the powers of the officers and organs of the group. It stated that the power to suspend or remove officers of the council was the function of the IYC Mobile Parliament as stipulated in Article 10 (B) and (C) of the IYC constitution after thorough investigation process. A meeting of the Central Zone of IYC held at the Ijaw House in Yenagoa on 30 May 2016 however passed a vote of confidence on the president and the spokesman.

Eradiri who spoke after the meeting, said a three-man panel was also constituted to resolve internal disagreements among national officers from the zone. He stated that the meeting also condemned the action of the national officers whose action triggered off the crisis. He said that the IYC remained a non-political  organisation with commitment to protect and defend the Ijaw national interests. He confirmed that external forces had infiltrated the council with some officers acting as moles for such external manipulators. “IYC is an apolitical organisation. Though there are members who have party affiliations but I have tried as much as possible to maintain an apolitical front and not to allow party issues creep into the IYC. “Certain  individuals don’t understand the positions they hold and they want to use their party affiliations to destabilise what the Ijaw nation is doing.

The IYC represents the Ijaw nation. They are APC members, they are PDP members, they are SDP members etc. “But  when you come to the IYC, you drop your political toga and deal with the issues that concern the Ijaw nation. Even though I will agree that there are some political manipulations, we will do everything to insulate this organisation. And that is why some individuals have been identified as moles in the IYC structure. We are not expecting that IYC will be too clean”, Eradiri said. He further clarified that certain members think that the IYC was a platform through which they could amass wealth and pay their bills, stressing that it should rather be seen as a call to serve the Ijaw land. “Certain elements think that the IYC is a platform through which to pay their bills. No, it is a call to service. You must come here and serve the people. It is not where you come and look for money. If you are looking for money, go and do your business”, he said.

The IYC however identified one Ayiri Emami from Itsekiri in Delta State and Ilaje in Ondo State as  one of the persons “interfering and sponsoring division within the parent Ijaw youth organisation.” In a statement on June 1 by Omare, the IYC alleged that Emami was one of the external forces behind the national officers who carried out the suspension of the president and the spokesman and also had it published in the media. The IYC narrated that  Emami admitted to having a hand in the crisis when Eradiri confronted him in a telephone conversation  in the morning of June 1 following information that he (Emami) was bankrolling the opposing national executives. “He (Emami) is sponsoring the purported suspension of the IYC president and spokesman. “He is sponsoring the purported suspension because of the call by the IYC president and spokesman for the immediate take off of the Maritime University, Okerenkoko as a condition to for the Niger Delta people to negotiate with the federal government. “That he does not want the Maritime University to see the light of the day.

Further that before anything relating to the Maritime University, Okerenkoko can be presented to government; there must be a meeting with him (Ayiri). “The president and spokesman of IYC are supporting the Niger Delta Avengers”, IYC quoted Emami as having stated in the telephone discussion. While warning Emami to desist forthwith from his unwholesome activities, the IYC insisted that the organisation and Ijaw people did not need to take permission from him “to take position in defence of the Ijaw and Niger Delta interests”. “We wish to in clear and unequivocal terms warn Ayiri Emami to steer clear from Ijaw affairs. The Ijaw people are not interfering in the internal affairs of the Itsekiri people; hence an Itsekiri man should also not interfere in Ijaw affairs. “The IYC takes special note of the role Ayiri Emami has been playing in the ongoing military attacks on Gbaramatu communities and some other Ijaw communities.  It is an aberration to imagine that a person of Ayiri’s standing wants to decide the direction of Ijaw people and even have the audacity to take steps to sponsor purposeless Ijaw youths to cause division within the IYC”, it added.