BEVERLY HILLS, June 21 (THEWILL) – Foremost Ijaw youth organisation, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), has raised the alarm over what it alleged as a threat by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshall Alex Badeh, to direct the military to turn its arsenal on the Niger Delta region.
According to IYC, Badeh made the comment at the commissioning of the permanent headquarters of the Joint Task Force (JTF), Igbogene, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
IYC, in a statement issued on Sunday by its spokesman, Barrister Eric Omare, said: “The attention of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Worldwide has been drawn to a statement credited to the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshall Alex Badeh, to the effect that the military would turn its arsenal to the Niger Delta because of rise in criminal activities such as oil theft, kidnapping and piracy and reported in several national newspapers on Sunday June 21, 2015. “
The group said it regards the threat by the military to attack the Niger Delta region because of alleged rise in criminal activities such as oil theft, sea piracy and kidnapping as a subterfuge to attack and kill innocent people of the Niger Delta region.
The statement further said: “This is a prelude to the execution of a hidden agenda by a section of the country now in power to silence the people of the Niger Delta.
“It is an open secret that those involved in oil theft in the Niger Delta are well placed persons in the society including top ranking serving and retired military officers.
“Some persons in the Niger Delta are only used as artisans and errand boys. Air Marshall Alex Badeh cannot claim ignorance of this fact.
“The IYC has said this several times and wondered why the innocent people of the Niger Delta should be the scape goat for the sins of highly placed and powerful people in Nigeria.
“It is obvious that the poor villages cannot be the owners of an oil ship containing 15,000 metric tons of oil.
“The Niger Delta people are the greatest victims of the activities of the organised oil bunkering gang as the environment which the people rely on for survival has suffered so much degradation.
“We wish to also state clearly that the Niger Delta amnesty programme for ex-agitators has no connection with the criminal activities mentioned by Air Marshall Alex Badeh.
“The ex-Niger Delta agitators were not granted amnesty to stop oil theft, kidnapping, sea piracy and other criminal activities.
“The struggle of the ex-agitators was to better the condition of the Niger Delta people and region from the oil and gas resources found in the Niger Delta region.
“The IYC does not support or encourage criminal activities such as kidnapping and sea piracy under any guise as these activities are not part of our struggle and we have consistently condemned them.
“However, the occurrence of these criminal activities in the Niger Delta region cannot be used as a justification to carry out a mass attack on the Niger Delta region.
“We call on the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshall Alex Badeh and the Nigeria military to have a rethink and save innocent lives.
“The Nigeria Military did not acquire ammunition to kill innocent Niger Deltans but to fight Boko Haram insurgents in the North East who are killing innocent Nigerians on a daily basis.
“Air Marshall Alex Badeh should direct his energies to the appropriate place and not play to the gallery to please his masters.”
