Why I Reject My Suspension – IYC Sec Gen

As the Ijaw Youth Council crisis rages on, Nangi Obi, the Secretary-General of the council has rejected his suspension by some members of the council’s executive committee led by Jonathan Lokpobiri.

Recall that Jonathan Lokpobiri’s executive 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 last weekend where about 12 Ijaw youths were allegedly killed and many injured.

But Obu, who broke his silence to journalists Thursday on the issue described his suspension as dead on arrival explaining that Jonathan Lokpobiri and others he described as the enemies of the Ijaw nation had no constitutional rights to remove him.

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

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

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

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

He stated:” Jonathan Lokpobiri 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 Lokpobiri on arriving in the area and discovering he could not implement his wish unilaterally cancelled it without consulting with the organizers.

He stated that after Opobo cancelled the poll, they all decided to take the exercise back there on an agreed date, but that Lokpobiri opposed the decision and declared that the election would be held in Abuloma on September 14th.

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

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

He stated: “They have no right to sit and suspend me because I am not an employee of Jonathan Lokpobiri. Our constitution does not give them such latitude.”

“Jonathan Lokpobiri is acting as a stooge to hand over the structure of the 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 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 Lokpobiri 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 Lokpobiri refused and chose the venue himself.

“We have been critical of the Minister and they are looking for a way to take me out. 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.”

“He is the elder brother to the council President. We are also critical of him because he uses the majority of the council to play clannish and selfish politics because of his governorship ambition in Bayelsa. IYC is now being used as a mobilisation tool for his ambition.”

He accused Lokpobiri of collecting N250m to remove him and three other of his colleagues but that they decided to start with him to manage the tension.

Obu said their relationship with Jonathan collapsed at the council’s executive because of alleged financial recklessness and fraudulent practices.

He said: “His grouse against me is that we discovered that he has been fraudulent. He went against the Constitution of the IYC to create an account with the Globus Bank, foreign and naira accounts.”

“He is using one young man to siphon the money. When they send money to the IYC account, Jonathan transfers the money to his personal account. And this is against Article 7 of the IYC constitution.

“The Constitution makes it mandatory that the President, Secretary-General or the Treasurer should sign the account of IYC but the President operates this account all by himself. We are not just accusing the President, let Globus Bank print all the financial transactions to see the sources of the money and where they are going.”

“So, Jonathan has seen us as his enemy and he is doing everything possible to bring us down. But we cannot be cowed. We are elected to serve the Ijaw nation and we cannot fold our arms and watch Jonathan destroy the image of the Ijaw nation.”

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

Jonathan Lokpobiri could not be reached at the time of filling in this report as all the calls and text messages put across to him by this reporter were not responded to.