Emma Amaize
16 June 2008
THE Ijaw Youth Leadership Forum (IYLF), weekend, pulled out for the second time in five months, from the Federal Government packaged peace process in the Niger-Delta.
The first time was in December 14, 2007, when it withdrew, citing the arrest of Henry Okah of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND), military invasion of Gbaraun community in Bayelsa State, attack on Rivers warlord, Ateke Tom by the Joint Task Force (JTF), on the Niger-Delta and the N444.6 budgetary provision by President Umaru Yar'Adua for security in the Niger-Delta.
It took the intervention of Ijaw nationalist leader, Chief Edwin Clark and other notable Ijaw elders, who were contacted by the Federal Government before the youths agreed to come back to the negotiating table.
The IYLF is a very powerful group in the scheme of things in the Niger-Delta. All the past presidents of the Ijaw Youth Council are members; recognized leaders of the various Ijaw militant groups and Ijaw youth leaders, within and outside government are members. In fact, the IYLF is like the clearing house of all Ijaw youth activities in the region. And so, when it sneezes, a lot of people listen.
Though, a lot of things had happened since it returned to the negotiating table with the government, ranging from the battering of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) president, Dr. Chris Ekiyor by soldiers on his way to conduct and IYC election in Bayelsa State to the secret trial of Henry Okah, the immediate cause of anger is the attack on some Ijaw communities between June 3 and 8 by the JTF tance.
While the JTF said it attacked militant camps and recovered assorted arms, which is, indeed, true, spokesman of the Ijaw communities in Edo state, Mr. Robinson Esite told newsmen in Benin City that no fewer than five Ijaw fishing communities in Ovia South-West Local Government Area were razed by soldiers who were said to be in search of militants.
Commander of the Niger-Delta Freedom Fighters (NDFF), aka Egbema One who spoke to Vanguard on phone named the communities destroyed in Edo state as Gboleikekuro, Safarogbo, Simughan, Adaugbene and Ojudou.He said the attack by the JTF on the communities was provocative, adding, "We will not accept the task force coming to burn our communities saying that they are looking for arms.
As we have said, we will not accept what the Federal Government, led by President Umaru Yar"Adua has done to the Ijaw communities, we will fight back if the Presidency fail to do anything about the killing and displacing of our people from their communities in Egbema kingdom in Edo and Delta states".
Egbema One said the only way out for the government was to rebuild the Ijaw communities that the task force destroyed early enough for the people to begin to live the normal life once again.
The leader of the Underdogs, the militant group, whose action on the JTF allegedly necessitated the raid by the task force was aghast that Brigadier-General Rimtip ordered his men to launch attack on militants on the grounds of missing arms when the group, not only returned the weapons that it took from soldiers during the unfortunate incident, but, also tendered an apology to the task force through the Delta Waterways and Security Committee (DWSC), months back.
He said that the group, which voluntarily handed over the confiscated General Purpose Machine Guns and AK 47 rifles told the DWSC officials that came to collect the arms when they asked for the armory that it fell into the water and the soldiers who had encounter with the Underdogs would attest that they were saying the truth.
At the time the DWSC handed over the recovered weapons to the JTF, there was tension in the creek, as the JTF siege on the waterways over the missing arms was on.
The committee explained to the Commander what the militants said about the missing armory, conveyed their apology to him over the incident and urged him relax his nerves on the matter while assuring him of the readiness of the DWSC to liaise with it to ensure security on the waterways. I
t was clear that the DWSC, which recovered the weapons from the militants was effectively in-charge of the situation but Brigadier-General Rimtip insisted that the armory should be produced. He said he would only give sometime for it to be surrendered or the military would employ its own tactics to get back its armory. This was about three or so months ago.
With the months passed by, it was thought that the JTF had accepted the explanation that the armory, indeed, fell into the water and could not be located, but, the latest onslaught by the task force showed that it did not accept the story.
In fact, Brigadier-General Rimtip told Vanguard when contacted some hours after the JTF raid on June 8 that it was funny for anybody to tell him that "our armory fell into the river".
A senior army officer told Vanguard, "It is a serious thing when a single bullet is found missing, let alone an armory.
A soldier can be dismissed because of a missing bullet if it cannot be accounted for. In fact, in the military, a proper account must be given for every arm and a lot of thing has to be done before the issue of missing armory can be rectified. You can be sure that whoever is responsible for the loss will be punished and so, everything must be done to recover the armory.
That is why the JTF is very worried. It concerns everybody, from the Commander to all those who supervised and went for duty at the place of the incident".But an Ijaw activist stated,
"The fact that JTF armory is missing does not mean that they should take the laws into its hands and start attacking innocent people. If the JTF were left to recover the guns snatched from those soldiers on their own, it would not till 100 years time, locate the weapons and where they are kept.
But the boys surrendered the weapons to them and told them that the armory fell into the water, why are they not satisfied with the explanation"."If they did not want to cooperate, they would not have returned the guns.
The fact that they returned the guns and even apologized to the JTF for their action is enough for the task force to know that they are not what they assume to be. Has the task force found out from the soldiers who they arrested after the incident the truth in the claim by the boys that the armory actually fell into the water? I am sure that if the Commander asked those soldiers, they will tell him the whole truth, why are they punishing people for nothing?
He asked.The leader of the Underdogs was also piqued by the claim that militants carried out a reprisal attack on the JTF after the June 8 bombardment, saying that it was a pack of falsehood by the task force to justify its unprovoked attack on the people.
The uproar by Ijaw leaders and communities over the bombardment prompted the Presidency to invite the Commander of the task force, some Ijaw leader, including Chief Clark and members of Federal Government Committee on Conflict Resolution and Peace in the Niger-Delta to Abuja, last weekend, for talks.
Vanguard gathered that the up-to-the-minute attacks on militant camps and Ijaw communities, as well as the opposition to the proposed Federal Government summit were discussed at the meeting.Secretary of the Federal Government Committee on Conflict Resolution and Peace in the Niger-Delta, Mr. Kingsley Kuku confirmed the meeting to Vanguard, last Friday, but said he was not in a position to speak to the press on what transpired at the meeting.He only volunteered that there would be a meeting of the Ijaw Youths Leadership Forum (IYLF) on Saturday, June 14, at Oporoza in Delta state, where the youth leaders in the region would be briefed on the Abuja talk and decisions taken on the way forward. At the end of the meeting weekend, the youth activists resolved to withdraw their members from the entire Niger-Delta peace process.
The truth, nevertheless, is that the June 8 sequential attacks on some militant camps, which snowballed into the burning of houses in the aforementioned Ijaw communities, would have been avoided if other stakeholders and security outfits in the Niger-Delta peace project in were taken into confidence by the JTF, which, as it appears, was professionally concerned with its missing armory, but, forgot that its actions, if mishandled, may cause upheaval in the entire system.
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