For President Goodluck Jonathan, the 2015 presidential election, appears too important than any other thing for him. Deft moves to control certain critical power blocs with appreciable influence underscores the seriousness with which close aides of Mr. President are strategising for the 2015 election year. The Ijaw Youths Council (IYC), is one of the leading groups in this regard. Therefore, as youths of Ijaw ethnic nationality converge in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital this month to elect a new leadership, OSA OKHOMINA in this Special Report, examines the struggle among factions of the IYC, the controversial roles of Bayelsa Governor, Seriake Dickson and the Presidency in the transition excercise. Aside the general elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the Niger Delta region, another election that raises fears and tension among youths is those that involved the occupation of the executive positions of the umbrella body of the youths of the Ijaw ethnic nationality, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC). The umbrella body, the IYC, is synonymous with the organized struggle by the Ijaw ethnic nationality against the contentious issues of under development, militarization and the marginalization of indigenes of the region. The council, which was formed in Kaiama community of the Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Council area of Bayelsa State during the 1998 famous declaration by Ijaw Youths known as the “Kaiama Declaration”, has produced executive leadership led by the likes of the first President of the Council, Dr. Felix Tuodolor, former president of MOSIEND, Comrade T.K.Ogoriba, Former IYC President and leader of NDPVF, Alhaji Asari Dokubo, Former IYC President, Comrade Oyeinfie Jonjon, Chairman, Supreme Egbesu Assembly ,Sgt. Weri Digifa , Dan Ekpebide (Pioneer President, FNDIC), Mike Wenebowei (former IYC Zonal Chairman), Dr Chris Ekiyor and the incubent president, Abiye Kuromiema. As the three years tenure of the incumbent president, Abiye Kuromiema led executive came to an end on the 27th of June,2013, the preparation for the election of the new executive has reached an advanced stage with over 20 aspirants from the over 57 clans of the Ijaw ethnic communities vying for different positions in the council The unending crisis The recent move by Governor Seriake Dickson and the Chairman of the Amnesty Implementation Committee and Adviser to the President, Hon.Kingsley Kuku, to intervene and push for a peaceful conduct of the election into the National Executive Council of the youth body of the Ijaw ethnic group known as the Ijaw Youth Council, have triggered a new controversy. While the duo of Dickson and Kuku are not strangers to controversy, they have become the centre of mixed attention with those interested in the “one man,one vote” conduct of the IYC poll against their alleged intrusion, other aspirants seeking endorsement from the political class of Dickson and Kuku are disposed to their mediatory role. At every political gathering in Yenagoa and other Niger Delta States, where the President,Dr. Goodluck Jonathan,the Bayelsa Governor,Hon. Seriake Dickson and the Presidential aide, Kingsley Kuku are in attendance, supporters of various presidential candidates have turned such occasions to curry for support and endorsement. With the Presidency seat of the IYC zoned to the Central zone, the choice of President Goodluck Jonathan through the selection of Governor Seriake Dickson is expected to emerge as President. Most of the voters, delegates from the various clans, have lost much interest in the coming poll as strength of fund, political influence and Jonathan factor has consumed the power of the ballot in the youth council. The interest of Dickson and Kuku, sources within the IYC claimed, is the enthronement of a new IYC executive with a focal duty to work for the re-election plans of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.According to the source, the involvement of Governor Dickson at the meetings and power play within the IYC in the last few days is a replica of what played out in the events that led to the emergence of the Senator Tari Sekibo led executive of the parent body,Ijaw National Congress(INC). Controversial amendment and Electoral body As at the time of this report, the peace meetings between the Bayelsa governor, Seriake Dickson and factions of the IYC, led to the constitution of two electoral bodies in two months. And also, the attempts to ensure a constitutional amendment that will set up a board of trustee for the IYC have been meshed in controversy. First to be set up was the seven-man electoral body led by renowned nollywood actress, Hilda Dokubo, to conduct this month’s presidential election into the National Executive Committee of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC). But there is another electoral body led by renowned Niger Delta activist, Ann Kio Briggs. The decision to dissolve the Hilda Dokubo led electoral committee, according to sources, was taken in Abuja at a meeting with Governor Seriake Dickson and Kingsley Kuku. The decision was further ratified at a IYC parliament sitting held last week at Kpakiama community in Bomadi Local Government area of Delta State. leadership gathered that the Abuja meeting, under the close guidance of the Bayelsa governor, resolved that the controversial constitution Amendment purportedly done by the Abiye Kuromiema led faction of the IYC in Okirika in Rivers State, be set aside and the alleged sack of the Zonal Chairman of the Council be reversed. Also amended is the number of delegates expected to vote at the convention. Also, additional provision of voting rights has been made to include 15 delegates from Abuja and the past Presidents of the IYC. Ann Kio Briggs led Electoral Committee is expected to conduct election into the various national offices in July instead of the June date fixed earlier. The spokesman of the IYC, Jeremiah Owopele, told leadership that the meeting held in Abuja was called to resolve the crisis in the IYC and decisions taken left for the IYC parliament to ratify. “The ratification done in Bomadi in Delta by the IYC parliament is binding and legal.” Chances of Aspirants and cases of intimidation The number of aspirants for the position of presidency zoned to Bayelsa State is growing day by day. While the likes of the former Deputy President, Comrade Udenz Eradiri and former chairman of the Central Zone, Comrade Jonathan Lokpobiri, have rolled out the drums for support and interest in the presidency, others have quietly emerged. leadership gathered that the President General of the Bayelsa Youths Association (worldwide), Comrade Elvis Donkemezuor, is also in the race. But it was gathered that the Bayelsa governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson, has a joker up his sleeves in the selection of the presidential candidate who will suit his mission for President Goodluck Jonathan. But the arrest and current travail of Nengi Ikhiba, has changed the status of the political game in the IYC. Ikhiba is a known associate of ex-militant leaders and enjoys the massive support of IYC delegates from the Eastern Zone. Nengi Ikhiba had contested the position a Local Government Council election and State House of Assembly in Bayelsa state during the era of Governor D.S.P Alamieyeseigha. Many of his loyalists and family members wondered why the alleged cases of membership of a cult group did not stop his aspiration. The arrest and continued incarceration of Ikhiba has however, provoked suspicion among clans of the Ijaw nation. Ikhiba has however instituted a N500m suit against the Bayelsa State Government and the police even as he has asked the Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa to compel the respondents to pay him N500m as damages for his unlawful arrest, detention and torture. He is also seeking an order directing the respondents to release him from detention and a declaration by the court that his continuous detention and torture were unlawful. He further urged the court to grant him bail and to restraint the respondents from further arresting him pending the determination of the motion on notice. Ikhiba, in a copy of the motion on notice which was filed by his lawyer, Mr. Ayei Okpa, averred that he has been in police detention since June 19.Granting part of the reliefs in a motion ex-parte brought before him on Tuesday by Okpa, Justice Akanbi Lambo, who presided over the matter, ordered the police to either arraign the suspect or grant him bail unconditionally. He gave the police 48 hours to obey the order and warned them against disobeying the court. Okpa had in the motion, told the court that his client was a victim of political harassment. He said the police were acting the scripts of the state government. He maintained that the government and its agents were bent on stopping his client, the applicant, from contesting the presidential election of the IYC scheduled to hold in three weeks. He said: “The applicant has continued to languish in the dingy, unkempt and smelly cell of the respondents. His health is deteriorating and he is being held under absolutely cruel and inhuman conditions.”The applicant is the leading aspirant in the forthcoming IYC elections and it is apparent that the respondents have cooked up the allegations against him in their desperate efforts to fabricate grounds upon which he can be lawfully held back from contesting the election. “Prior to the arrest, the fourth respondent (Kenebai) has made several failed efforts to get him to step down in order for the fifth respondent’s (government’s) anointed candidate to carry the day.” The refusal of the police to release him has however provoked security concern as the delegates’ election and conference would be held in Bayelsa State. Already, some youths have threatened to occupy the command over the decision of the police to ignore a Federal High Court order directing it to either arraign Ikhiba or release him unconditionally. According to police sources, Nengi Ikiba, who is a presidential aspirant in the forthcoming elections of the Ijaw Youth Council( IYC) has been in police detention since June 19 on the alleged order of some officials of the state government. leadership gathered at the weekend that the arrest and continued detention of the IYC youth leader has generated tension between some politicians and the Governor Seriake Dickson administration. Senator Nimi Barigha Amange’s attempt to secure the release of the suspect was turned down by the police allegedly on the orders of the state government. All efforts by Okpa and supporters of Ikiba including a former senator to prevail on the police to obey the directive of the court were said to have proved abortive.Instead, the police were said to have filed one count-charge against Ikiba in the state High Court claiming that he (Ikiba) was a retired cultist. Okpa told leadership in Yenagoa that the police action was against the tenor of the court’s directive. “The order of the court was that he should be arraigned. Arraignment has been decided in so many cases. It means bringing the accused person to court unfettered, reading the charges to him and getting him to take his plea and the judge recording same.” “An arraignment is covered by Section 215 of the Criminal Procedure Law of Bayelsa State. Since they could not arraign him, the police were supposed to have released him. But they are still keeping him.” But the Bayelsa State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Tonye Ebitibituwa, explained why the police authorities refused to release a member of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC),Mr. Nengi Ikhiba over his alleged involvement in cultism and the 2005 killing of a youth in Rivers State. According to him, though the order of the Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa for the police to arraign the detained youth leader within 48 hours or release him unconditionally was received by the command, the order came late at a time the police had filed information before the state Chief Judge to assign the case for formal arraignment. Ebitibituwa, while parading Ikhiba, said the nature and gravity of the alleged crime of the suspect is such that he cannot be arraigned in court within the time frame. According to him, “it is not in our character in the Bayelsa state police command to flout any order of a court of competent jurisdiction. The police and the judiciary in State have had robust relationship which cannot be broken. In compliance with the Federal High Court, the Police have initiated the process for his arraignment in Court by filling additional information which has been served on the suspect since Thursday June 27, 2013.” “The nature and gravity of the alleged crime by the suspect is such that he cannot be arraigned in court within the time frame, except we have gone through the process of first filing information which has been done. The alleged suspect,Nengi Ikhiba, confessed to be a notorious cult Leader/Founder of Icelander with Ateke Tom, the late Soboma George and Julius Benson. The police should not be dragged unnecessarily into any face-off with the judiciary with whom we have had unquestioned and robust relationship”, the police boss said. Meanwhile, a socio-cultural group, the United Front for a Progressive Ijaw Nation (UFPIN), has called for the immediate disqualification of candidates with criminal records from running for positions in the forthcoming Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), elections. In a statement issued by its president, Mr. Ebiteowei Magnus, Secretary General, Prosper Tamuno and PRO, Magnus Toikumor, the group said: “We cannot surrender our hard earned reputation and peace as a people to a criminal who will end up taking us back to those gory days, when our most vibrant and promising youths were sacrificed in the name of senseless cult wars and rivalries. Allowing him (Ikhiba) to run as a candidate in its self is a big smear on the reputation of the Ijaw nation, not to talk of having him hold any position at all. “We are therefore, calling on all well meaning Ijaw sons and daughters to stop every attempt by criminal minded individuals to hijack power under whatever guise clearly to plunge us back into another era of unwarranted killings and destruction of innocent lives and property”, it said. Bayelsa State Government Absolves Self The Bayelsa state government has however, absolved itself of Ikhiba’s travails. This is even as it commended the police for his arrest. In a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Security, Lt Col Bernard Sunday Kenibai (rtd.), the government said the arrest of Ikhiba would serve as a deterrent to others of his kind in the state. The statement read: “Bayelsa State Government says the arrest and detention of an alleged leader of a notorious cult group; Mr. Nengi Ikhiba, would serve as a deterrent to his likes, as the declaration of war against cultism and other related vices has begun to yield dividends. Describing the arrest of Ikhiba as a welcome development, the State Governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson, said his administration ‘would not condone acts of criminality’. Commending the efforts of the Police and other security operatives in the state, the governor disclosed that ‘the government is investing heavily in security, adding that the only way to attract both local and foreign investors to the state. ‘The arrest of Ikhiba has nothing to do with his political aspiration of becoming the president of the Ijaw Youth Council as it is being insinuated in some quarters. “People should stop playing politics with the lives of the people; this is the man who has made a confessional statement to the police on his alleged role in the killing of innocent people in the state. “This administration will not support criminals no matter highly placed such persons may be. Our dragnet is everywhere. You can no longer commit crime and go scot free again in Bayelsa” “Ikhiba has admitted to be the founder of the ICELANDERS Cult group in Rivers State and later the GREENLANDERS in Bayelsa and after, he fell apart with some members of the ICELANDERS group he had recruited due to some irreconcilable differences. “You don’t empower people with guns but with sustainable means of income. Earlier this month, (June), over 11,000 youths from all the eight local government areas of the state renounced cultism. This is a welcome development. We are ready to collaborate with the youths and liberate them from a life of dependency. “If we do not help to build you all, then our future will not be assured. You are all aware of what our Restoration Government is doing; building schools, roads, hospitals, investing in security and making our state safe, talking to people to come here to invest so that we can create jobs for you.” “All of these will come to nothing if we don’t help to equip you with the skills that you need to partake in the economy to protect our future. “This exercise is not the end but just the beginning. By the time my team concludes the verification exercise and they will do it in a detailed way, local government by local government. “When we are through with all of these, we are going to engage you in a special youth empowerment programme. A total of 10,000 youths will be engaged”, the statement said. But Ikhiba has denied involvement in cult killings and described his arrest as political. “They forced me to admit membership of a cult group at gun point. They were asking me questions from a list. They told me to abandon my presidential aspiration of the IYC”, he stated. - See more at: leadership.ng/news/070713/2015-jonathan-s-schemes-pocket-ijaw-youth-council#sthash.npbR4eDr.dpuf
Posted on: Sun, 07 Jul 2013 06:40:50 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015