Crisis Looms as IYC Secretary-General Rejects Suspension

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

The Secretary-General of the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide, Nangi Obu, has rejected his suspension by some members of the council’s executive committee led by Jonathan Lokpobiri, younger brother to the Minister of State for Petroleum, Oil, Heineken Lokpobiri.

Lokpobiri and some of his executive members had announced the suspension of Obu after blaming him for the bloodshed that marred the IYC Eastern Zonal election at Abuloma, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

About five Ijaw youths were allegedly killed and many others injured and maimed as two rival groups clashed during the zonal poll. But Obu, who broke his silence on the issue, described his suspension as dead on arrival explaining that Jonathan and others had no constitutional rights to remove him.

“They have no right to sit and suspend me because I am not an employee of Jonathan. Our constitution does not give them such latitude,” he said.

 He described the killings of innocent Ijaw youths during the election as unfortunate, terrible and avoidable and blamed the bloodbath on what he referred to as Jonathan’s alleged attempt to impose candidates.

 He said as a President of council, Jonathan could only partake in electoral processes in other zones as an observer and was forbidden to make himself to dictate and micromanage the outcome of such elections.

 Obu recalled that similar elections held at Jonathan’s central zone in Bayelsa and the Western Zone in Delta and that Jonathan only went there as an observer.

 He, however, said Jonathan took a special interest in the Eastern Zonal election because he had the desire to hand over the Rivers structure to the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, to give him a strong base in Ijaw land to undo his political enemy and Governor of Rivers State, Siminialayi Fubara.

 He said Jonathan was deeply involved in the war against Fubara, whom he said deserved the IYC protection being an Ijaw governor, because of his elder brother’s relationship with Wike.

 Obu explained that the election was formally scheduled to hold in Opobo, Fubara’s local government area, but that Jonathan on arriving the area and discovering he could not implement his wish unilaterally cancelled it without consulting with the organisers.

 He said after the Opobo cancelled poll, they all decided to take the exercise back there on an agreed date, but that Jonathan opposed the decision and declared that the election would hold in Abuloma on September 14, 2024.

 He said: “Jonathan is acting as a stooge to hand over the structure of IYC Eastern Zone to the FCT Minister. They came to the Eastern Zone to install the candidate of their choice. We resisted it.  

 “The Kalabari clan where it was zoned to, the stakeholders sat down and selected their choice. Jonathan Lokpobiri knowing that it was not the candidate he had collected money for disagreed with them. He got money from the FCT Minister, his brother and an interventionist agency and other quarters to deliver their candidate so that they can use that person to cause crisis in the Ijaw nation. 

 “We told Jonathan that he cannot come from the central zone and decide for Kalabari people who should be their leader. At Opobo when he discovered he could not impose his candidate, he unilaterally cancelled the election. We left the scene. 

 “He rescheduled the election for September 14. Everybody agreed and we decided to take it back to Opobo. But Jonathan refused and chose the venue himself.

 “Jonathan came with his candidate armed with cult boys at the venue of the Abuloma election. The cult boys started having issues with other Ijaw youths that they felt should not be around. I have never carried gun in my life and I have never joined any cult in my life. Jonathan is known for violence.”

 Obu said Jonathan and others were after him and three other executive members because they had been critical of his brother Heineken Lokpobiri.

 He recalled that the plot to bring them down started after they released some statements accusing Heineken of incompetence and urging President Bola Tinubu to redeploy him.

He said: “For over a month, I and few of my colleagues saw how the suffering on Nigerians had been intensified by the insensitivity and lack of tact by the Minister of Petroleum. 

 “He lied to us that Port Harcourt refinery would be running in December 2023, Warri refinery would start working in March this year. He is a minister from Ijaw extraction. But he hasn’t been doing things well and we are suffering. In my area, we now buy fuel at about N5,000 a litre. 

 “We have been critical of the Minister and they are looking for a way to take me out. They sent people to come after. We called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to redeploy him because it looks like he lacks the magic wand to do something in that sector. All other agencies under the Minister are not doing well”. 

 He accused Lokpobiri of collecting N250 million to remove him and three other of his colleagues but that they decided to start with him to manage the tension.

 Obu called on security agencies to thoroughly, without any bias investigate,  the activities of Jonathan and his actions that led to the terrible killings of Ijaw Youths in Abuloma.