Jesse Ese, Yenagoa
The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) has called on the NYSC to stop posting Ijaw youths who have graduated from the university to serve in Northern part of Nigeria due to the Boko Haram insurgency.
The Leadership of the IYC also ordered all Ijaw people residing in Northern Nigeria to come back home to avert further loss of Ijaw lives to the Boko Haram insurgency.
This decision was taken in Yenagoa last Thursday at a meeting held to review the current security situation in the country and senseless killing of Nigerians.
Addressing newsmen at the end of the meeting, IYC spokesman, Eric Omare said the ethnic group has recently lost James Abidde and Stephen Akpo, a lieutenant colonel to the insurgency while others are in hospital.
In view of the sad development, Omare said it is no longer safe for the Ijaws to continue to reside in the North.
He equally called on the Nigerian Council on Legal Education to stop posting Ijaw graduate lawyers to the Nigerian Law School, Adamawa and Nigerian Law School, Kano.
The IYC further urged the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Customs Service to stop further posting of their people to Northern Nigeria to be used as scape goats for the crisis orchestrated by some Northern Leaders.
In his words: “The IYC leadership met and after careful review of the situation in the northern part of the country resolved that the board of the NYSC should stop henceforth the posting of Ijaw people to the North. No Ijaw graduate should be posted to the northern part of Nigeria.
“Also the Nigerian Council on Legal Education should not post any Ijaw to the Nigerian Law School in Kano and Adamawa. Ijaw people in the Nigerian Army, Customs and other services should no longer be posted to Northern Nigeria.
“We will not accept situations where they post their people to the creeks of the Niger Delta to be enjoying oil money while they post our people to the North to be killed by Boko Haram. If the northern political leadership because of power want to kill the entire North, let them kill themselves but our people should not be scape goats in their killing.”
The body said they will hold further meetings in the days ahead to unfold the next line of action should their plea not be heeded stressing it is needless for their people to die over a problem created due to Jonathan’s presidency.
“The problem was created because of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency. It is therefore not justifiable for our people to go and die in such situation,” Omare concluded.
