JONATHAN DID NOT CREATE NIGER DELTA ADVENGERS - IJAW YOUTH COUNCIL

The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) has discredited the claim by ex-
militant Israel Akpodoro who alleged that former President
Goodluck Jonathan founded the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA)
responsible for the recent bombings of oil installations in the
Niger Delta region.
According to punch, the IYC made this known in a statement
by its spokesman, Eric Omare on Sunday.

     The IYC debunked the allegations made by Akpodoro that
Jonathan formed the militant group in a meeting of Niger Delta
stakeholders in January 2015, and directed all ex-militants
from the region to return to the creeks in preparation for action
should General Muhammadu Buhari win the then coming
election.
The statement read in parts:
The attention of the group has been drawn to a
statement by one Israel Akpodoro, who claimed to
be the National President of the National Coalition
of Niger Delta Ex-Agitators, alleging that former
President Jonathan founded the Niger Delta
Avengers.
The allegation that the NDA was formed by
Jonathan in a meeting he attended in January
2015, preparatory to the 2015 general elections to
make the country ungovernable for his successor,
is absolutely untrue.
It is nonsensical to imagine that former President
Jonathan, who conceded defeat and
congratulated his opponent, current President
Muhammadu Buhari, even before the final result
was announced, would make such a plan.
In the first place, the January 2015 meeting of ex-
agitators and stakeholders in the region was not
attended by Jonathan and the meeting never
resolved to make Nigeria ungovernable for
President Buhari.
The IYC leadership also attended the meeting and
the President of the IYC, Udengs Eradiri , was one
of the speakers at that meeting. The meeting was
called to calm down the youths of the Niger Delta,
who were aggrieved with the attack on former
President Jonathan in some northern states
during the campaign for the 2015 presidential
election.”
This situation made youths of the South-South to
be aggrieved and it was in that state of affairs that
the then Presidential Adviser on the Niger Delta,
Kingsley Kuku , in conjunction with the Governor of
Bayelsa State, Seriake Dickson , took the proactive
step to call a stakeholders’ meeting, where the
attack on Jonathan in the North was condemned.
They asked the youth of the South-South to give
peace a chance. It was never resolved at that
meeting to set up the Niger Delta Avengers and to
make Nigeria ungovernable. The initiators of this
historic meeting deserve commendation rather
than condemnation.”
For the records, the said Akpodoro was never an
ex-agitator; hence he could not have been
selected to address such an important gathering
of stakeholders in the region. The issue of his
being moved out of the meeting because he
opposed the idea does not arise as even the
media personnel, who were at the meeting, can
attest this fact.”
It is now the stock in trade of people from the
South-South, who are looking for relevance from
the Federal Government, to castigate leaders from
the region. We call on such characters in the
class of Akpodoro to have a rethink as their antics
may not take them far.