The Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, has condemned the military for carrying out random bombings of the Niger Delta with the excuse of arresting sea pirates.
According to the IYC President, Mr. Udengs Eradiri, the group condemns criminalities in the region, but added that random bombings were a ploy to bomb the Niger Delta people. Eradiri stated this at the headquarters of IYC in Yenagoa on Wednesday, when he received officials of the Niger Delta Youth Forum that honoured him with an Award of Excellence for his exemplary leadership.
According to Eradiri, the military authorities should device a more workable approach to fishing out criminals in the region instead of bombing the entire communities in search of sea pirates. He said: “it is unfortunate that the military (I do not know if they are doing eye service), have been carrying out bombings in recent times in the region to fish out pirates. “The Nigerian Navy is there, a lot of money is spent on the Navy. There are a lot of blockades in the waterways, yet pirates and kidnappers still have their ways, abducting people on the main routes manned by the military? “I think there is complicity. So, this pretext of looking for pirates and begin to bomb randomly is not accepted by us. We see it as a ploy to begin to move towards bombing people in the Niger Delta region. “We are saying that inasmuch as we condemn criminality in the region, the approach as experienced in the recent weeks is not acceptable because there are statutory organs – the Joint Military Task Force, the Navy that have been funded over the years to secure the waterways. “But when we begin to bring in the Air Force, then there will be colossal damage and at the end of the day our innocent communities will suffer for it.” Eradiri therefore implored the youth of the region to desist from actions that would give the military the excuse to do what they had started doing in Cross River and Akwa Ibom States. “So, if you are a kidnapper, don’t use our environment to kidnap, if you are pirates, leave the Ijaw environment because we do not want a situation your activities which are not sanctioned by our people will begin to bring calamities to the Niger Delta. “I have been talking to many youths, we must give the current administration in the country the opportunity to express itself and we begin to take them on their actions accordingly. “Very unfortunately, if this bombing is one of their modus of maintaining peace in the region, it is a negative way.” On the Amnesty Programme, the IYC boss urged President Muhammadu Buhari to start off the amnesty office by quickly appointing a Coordinator for the Presidential Amnesty Programme, adding that it was one key area that concerned them as a people. He also called on the President to separate the office of the coordinator of the programme and that of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta. He added: “The programme is dear to us. It is building the capacity of our people. There are a lot of Niger Delta people scattered around the world and they are receiving qualitative education in various countries of the world. “So, leaving the office vacant is a problem. We know what we are doing in trying to manage our youths in order not to carry out activities that will draw the attention of government because we may not know the repercussions that will come. But the truth is that you cannot leave that office vacant.”
