Former national spokesperson for the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide, Comrade Ebilade Ekerefe, has cautioned Niger Delta youths not to allow themselves to be used as agents of distraction, but to realise that they are future leaders.
He spoke on the heels of a threat by some Niger Delta youths to protest against Maj.-Gen. Barry Ndiomu (rtd.), the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), over unfounded allegations of fraud and incompetence.
In a statement issued yesterday in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, the IYC ex-spokesman advised the youth to have a rethink so as not to constitute themselves into being part of the problem to be solved in the society, but to be part of the solution.
Ekerefe wondered why the youth should allow themselves to be used as tools by desperate syndicates who, according to him, have used every available means to sponsor damning publications, including trying hard to put the National Security Adviser, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, on a collision course with Gen. Ndiomu.
This, according to Ekerefe, is desperation taken too far.
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He condemned every action geared towards bringing down another Ijaw man because of position of power.
He said actions like this have made the Ijaw nation a laughing stock in the country and appealed to those characters to desist from it.
While Ekerefe acknowledged that some of the policies and reforms of Ndiomu might not be beneficial to certain individuals who had manipulated the system, he emphasised that the reforms were in the best interest of beneficiaries of the programme in the long run and the results had started coming in.
of the Niger Delta while in office as spokesperson for the IYC.
He said the Presidential Amnesty Office had improved in terms of capacity and entrepreneurial policies for beneficiaries of the amnesty programme under Ndiomu.