Rivers peace deal: Don’t celebrate yet, IYC tells Fubara
Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide has described the peace deal between the governor of Rivers State, Siminalaye Fubara, and his predecessor in office and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesome Wike, by President Bola Tinubu as “a rape on democracy, and open hatred for the Ijaws.”
The group therefore urged Fubara to “be watchful and wary of this so called settlement.”
In a statement issued by the group and signed by its spokesman, Amb. Binebai Princewill, copies of which were made available to journalists in Warri, Delta State on Wednesday, the IYC said, “It is not yet time to celebrate. Fubara needs to show that he is the governor of Rivers State now. The Ijaw Youth Council is aware that there is more to this premeditated settlement.”
The group added, “The big question now is that the defected 27 lawmakers in the Rivers State House of Assembly, what party are they now, are they in the APC or PDP?”
Thanking Tinubu “for his intervention on the lingering crisis by listening to the voice of Niger Deltans, including the Ijaw Youth Council,” the group however remarked that “the settlement was one-sided, devoid of justice, fairness and negatively twisted deliberately against the governor and was in total favour to Wike.”
It averred, “For us, that is not a settlement, but laid down rules for the continued enslavement of the governor of Rivers State. The purported settlement is nothing but a mere charade and a drama stage-managed by Wike and his cohorts in Aso Rock.”
The statement added, “We are completely backing the position of our father, Senator Dr Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, leader of PANDEF, by re-emphasising that the said intervention by Tinubu, who is supposed to play a fatherly role as President of the country on this matter, has clearly demonstrated his unbridled hatred against the Ijaws, with his biased eight-point resolutions.
“A point must be made known that Nigeria is not a banana republic, where things are done outside the constitution, the rule of law must prevail. President Tinubu must know that this is democracy and not a military regime where decisions are taken without following the constitution. We cannot sit down and watch our democracy bleeding under Tinubu. At the moment, our democracy is wobbling and in limbo.
“As Ijaw people, we are beginning to lose faith in Tinubu’s Presidency being fair to everyone in Nigeria, particularly to the Ijaws. How does anyone explain that out of eight resolutions dished out by the President of Nigeria between two warring parties, seven were in favour of Wike only one seems to support Fubara. This is really sad for our country’s democracy and a clear hatred exhibited against the Ijaw in Nigeria.
“The resolutions to us, as a council, is laughable. We are imagining if Tinubu is aware that Governor Fubara is neither his employee nor minister under him, but a legally and democratically elected governor of Rivers State, just the way Tinubu was elected as President of Nigeria by Nigerians. The fact that he called the meeting settlement is the more reason he ought to be fair to all parties and not dishing out this one-sided and subjective directives.”
Insisting that Fubara cannot be treated like he has committed any crime, the IYC said that all the governor of Rivers State has is to rebuild a better and stronger Rivers State.
It added, “That the governor of Rivers State shall represent a budget that has been passed by the state House of Assembly to the House again is a political rascality taken too far and on top of it, the governor shall recall all sacked local government chairmen in Rivers State. We are tempted to ask how did this so called settlement settles Fubara, the governor of Rivers State and the people of the state.”
