All is not well with the youth body of the Ijaw Nation, the Ijaw Youth Congress (IYC). Though the body was enmeshed in protracted crisis associated with change of leadership, the transition when it ended on Tuesday sowed more seeds of discord among the youths.
In fact, the election was supposed to hold in Yenagoa on Saturday, but it was shifted to Monday by the state government because of the visit of the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Pastor Enoch Adeboye. Postponing the election was a wise decision since the government could not afford to be dealing with crisis during the visit of Adeboye.
The election was later held on Monday at the Samson Siasia Sports Complex.
There was no difference between the complex and a battlefield. Fully armed mobile policemen, soldiers, operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) men of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and other intelligence officers relocated temporary to the complex and its surroundings.
Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) and many patrol vans of security personnel dotted the road to the complex. Indeed, the police and other security commands in the state were ready for any eventuality. Many people including journalists were not allowed access to the venue. The fear lingered but at the end the area became rowdy.
Tempers flared. The youths violently protested within the complex and the election was declared inconclusive. The problem. When the votes for the financial secretary were being counted, it was discovered that the number of ballot papers exceeded the number of accredited voters.
Instead of 99, the official went beyond it to 106. “This is fraud”, one of the youths shouted in protest. He was soon joined by others and the moods of delegates changed. The election was cancelled till further notice.
Surprisingly, members of the Electoral Committee, were said to have sent text messages to delegates at about 1am on Tuesday insisting that the election must be concluded latter on Tuesday morning. Unconfirmed reports said a directive from the Presidency mounted the pressure on the state government to facilitate the conclusion of the IYC matter.
The sudden change of mind by the electoral committee created the crisis. Most of the delegates when they arrived the gate of the complex, were denied access to the venue of the election by security operatives. Delegates, aspirants and their agents milled around the gate and remained there till the end of the election.
The announcement came that the election had ended and that Mr. Udens Eradiri, emerged the President-elect of IYC. The camp of Eradiri rolled out drums to celebrate the victory. But the supporters of other presidential aspirants boiled in anger. Following the violent outburst, members of the electoral committee were said to have been secretly smuggled out of the venue under heavy security at about 10am.
Though many believed that Eradiri because of his oratorical skills, courage, leadership qualities and vision deserve to lead the Ijaw youths, others are not buying the idea. Eradiri campaigned widely and warmed his hearts to many Ijaw leaders, including the Governor Seriake Dickson. He also used the media to his advantage.
But the aggrieved youths soon rocked Yenagoa with protest. They took to the streets harassing buses and commuters. They stormed the Secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) at Azikoro Road to register their complaints over what they described as imposition of candidates by the government.
They marched to the entrance of the Government House. But they were immediately dislodged by security operatives. As they moved, they complained. The angry youngsters alleged that the elections were manipulated and rigged to the advantage of the government candidates.
Two rival groups of youths clashed in a free-for-all. But they mended their fences, joined voices together to curse the masterminds of their travails.
Other delegates who complained that they were shortchanged from the electoral process, held parallel elections and elected their different presidents. In fact, all the aspirants laid claims to the presidency of IYC.
But the 2013 Electoral Committee of the IYC chaired by Sunny Tolofari insisted that Eradiri, the former Secretary-General of IYC, is the authentic President-elect.
The protest, however, went wild. The protesters said the elections were marred by fraud with total number of voters exceeding the number of accredited voters.
They claimed that the delegate list was altered and that officials of the state government deployed armed soldiers and police to stop original delegates from gaining access to the Sports Complex, the venue of the election.
Some of the aspirants that laid claims to the presidency in parallel elections are Elvis Donkemezuo, Jonathan Lokpobiri and Nengi Ikiba.
“My election as President of IYC was secured through a landslide victory. I call on my supporters to be law-abiding and urge other aspirants to come and work together. For Ijaw nation to move forward, everybody must come together as one,” Donkemezuo said.
When Yenagoa became too hot for them, the angry youths relocated to the East-West Road, blocked the Mbiama axis of the road and caused heavy gridlock.
For hours, commuters and motorists were held by the protesters who ignored all pleas to leave the road. They used a trailer to block the ever-busy road and chanted war-like songs.
A member of staff of Vintage Press, Olatunde Olajogba, who was on his way to Yenagoa on an official trip, was held by the traffic. Olajogba who is the General Manager, Port Harcourt Office, described the traffic situation along the road as hellish.
“Everywhere has been paralysed. There is no free-flow of traffic. I have been here for over four hours. The IYC boys say they are protesting against an election that was held in Bayelsa”, he said.
He added that though security operatives flooded the area, they were unable to disperse the protesters. After waiting many hours without success, Olajogba was forced to do a u-turn back to Port Harcourt.
“The police are everywhere. The JTF are everywhere. The youths said the governor of Bayelsa State did not allow them to participate in the election. We are handicap, everybody on this road. There appears to be no way out”, he said.
Speaking through the mobile phone of Olajogba, one of the protesters, Mr. Jonathan Lokpobiri, vowed to remain on the road until some of their boys arrested by the police in Bayelsa were released.
Lokpobiri, who was also a Presidential aspirant in the election, said the protesters would continue to block the road until the state government withdrew its recognition of Eradiri as the elected President.
“There was an election on Monday but it was declared inconclusive and postponed till further notice. But to our surprise, we got text messages that we should come for the election the next day.
“When we got there, they didn’t allow us in. No delegate was allowed to enter the premises. They later announced that some persons have won. This is not the way the Ijaw people behave.
“The government should face governance and allow us to do our election. As it stands now we have gone to do our individual elections and all the 16 presidential aspirants have been declared presidents of IYC”, he said.
Also another aspirant, Mr. Olorogun Kenneth, said all the aspirants had been declared winners of the elections by their delegates. He said the government deceived them to impose their candidates on them adding that accredited delegates were not allowed to vote in the elections.
“We need well-meaning Ijaw leaders including the Presidential Adviser on Niger Delta Matters, Mr. Kingsley Kuku to intervene”, he said.
But after hours of the protest, the youths were forced out of the road by reinforced security operatives.
But Tofolari said such protest was expected claiming that the election was free and fair. He said Eradiri won the election with 56 out of 99 votes describing as untrue the allegation that the election was marred b irregularities. He said Eradiri emerged through due process.
He said Jeremy Ebipadei was elected as the Deputy National President, Ala Hart, the Secretary and George Ikuru as Assistant Secretary. Others are Financial Secretary Alfred Emikpade; Director of Mobilisation, Wisdom Ikribu; Woman Leader, Felicia Ngere; Treasurer, Bowe Tombra Ben and Legal Adviser, Ikine Ebele-Kori.
Shortly after reeling out the names, Tofolari said: “These are the persons who won the offices. All across the world when it comes to electoral issues, there is bound to be such things that we are seeing now. This is not left out.
“But the persons we mentioned to you were the elected persons. Protest is normal when it comes to electoral periods. The election is free and fair. All the issues will be resolved later.”
Meanwhile, the Kawu-Baraje faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led by Chief Richard Kpodo expressed concern over the protest marches and said the election was a charade.
He said the hijack of the IYC electoral process by the government was “a show of shame and an unnecessary politics that will further divide the Ijaw race”.
“The government interest should have been tactfully done. This action will further tear the Ijaw race apart rather than bring the youths together”, he said.
Eric Omare, who contested to be the organisation’s spokesperson, said the delegate list was altered by members of the Electoral Committee to exclude legitimate clan delegates and include fictitious names.
Omare, who is a Warri-based lawyer, said: “Thereafter, after voting was concluded, the collation of result on a position by position basis started. The collation was successfully done for the positions of Mobilisation Officer, Treasurer and Woman Leader. However, when it was turn for the collation of the votes for spokesman, it was observed that the numbers of votes cast were more than the accredited voters. Whereas, the number of accredited delegates/voters was 99, the total number of votes cast was 103. Similar irregularity was observed with regard to the collation of the result for the Financial Secretary. Hence, there was serious disagreement between the agents/aspirants and the members of the Electoral Committee. After, the several hours of argument, it was unanimously agreed that the entire process has lost credibility and the election was accordingly cancelled apart from the election of the Treasurer, Woman Leader and Mobilisation Officer. The cancellation was announced in the full glare of the media by the Chairman of the Eleco, Comrade Sunny Diritolofari at about 9.30pm on 28th of October, 2013 at the Samson Siasia Stadium, Yenagoa. Therefore, the election for the position of Spokesman, Secretary, Financial Secretary, Assistant Secretary, Deputy President and National President was inconclusive and cancelled.”
He added: “It is sad that as Ijaw people we cannot even conduct an election involving only 100 people/delegates and involving only Ijaw people. The inability to conclude the election and the subsequent events have led to a near state of anarchy and total disintegration of the once cohesive Ijaw Youth Council.”
He urged President Goodluck Jonathan, leader of Ijaw Nation, Chief (Dr) E. K. Clark, Presidential Advisers, Kingsley Kuku and Oronto Douglas to intervene and save the IYC from total disintegration.
But Tofolari and Eradiri denied that the government hijacked the process.
Eradiri said:”I don’t need government to win IYC election. I was given the opportunity to serve the Ijaw people as the former Secretary-General of IYC and I served well well; so, my hard work and my vigorous campaigning made me to emerged as IYC President.”
Eradiri also condemned the post- election crisis, including the destruction of vehicles and blocking of the East-West Road by 16 aggrieved presidential aspirants.
He said other aspirants gunning for the job lacked the leadership qualities to chart an enviable course for the region.
He said his administration would ensure the “total cleansing of the IYC nation and structures” and would not tolerate any act of indiscipline and nonsense .
He said the new government would ensure unity, discipline among the youths and build bridges.
He said: “I want to ensure that young Ijaw youths begin to re channel their energy positively, because failure to do so would spell doom. We shall rebuild IYC structures and cleans bases, we shall also take crude oil thefts in our environments, re-articulate our position in the country.”
