SAN FRANCISCO, August 03, (THEWILL) – The foremost Ijaw Youth organisation, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide, has begun a process of electing leaders into its zonal and diaspora offices to create a new team, ahead of the nation’s 2015 general elections.
The process is expected to galvanise and firm up the pressure group, known for its radical views, ahead of the nation’s general elections.
The group had already elected officers into its Central Zone and have moved the train to the Western zone where its new executive committee members emerged Saturday after a keenly contested election held at Ogbe-Ijoh Primary School ground, in Ogbe-Ijoh Local Government Area of Delta s
State.
The election which was witnessed by the National President of IYC, Comrade Udengs Eradiri, alongside the spokesman of the council, Eric Omare, and other national officers of the council, was declared free and fair by the chairman of the seven-man electoral committee, Omoro Ogei.
Declaring the results, Omoro-Ogei flanked by other committee members, said the election was devoid of any rancour as all delegates were duly accredited and enlightened before going into the polls.
According to him, 69 delegates participated in the election from the 23 Clans that were duly certified to vote, adding that in the IYC zoning arrangement, six offices were zoned to Delta State, two zoned to Ondo while two other positions were also zoned to Edo State.
Comrade Freeborn Atigbe from Edo State, emerged the new executive chairman of the Western zone, beating three other contestants to the position.
Others elected to pilot the affairs of the zone for a period of three years included; Messer Preye Thomas Koremene (Vice Chairman, Delta State); Iwabi Ebigha Ebidaubra (Secretary General, Ondo state); Napoleon Kenerekedi (Information Officer, Delta State); Ms. Patience Seimode Inigha (Women Leader, Delta State); Augustine Ebi-Okporu (Assist. Sec, Delta State); Ms. Esther Ukulor (Treasurer, Delta); Jackson Agbor (Fin Sec, Delta); Denmene Edwin (Mobilisation Officer, Edo State); as well as Loko Kikiranki Ibakeyowei (Student Rep, Ondo State).
Commenting on the election, the immediate past chairman of the zone, Comrade Preye Okada, whose tenure lapsed on July 26, expressed delight over the peaceful conduct of the election and therefore urged his successors to capitalise on the gains of his administration and improve on the structures and programme.
Speaking to newsmen, the IYC National President, Comrade Eradiri, said the election was in fulfilment of its earlier held convention which mandated the body to conduct election at the Clan and Zonal level to prepare the people ahead of 2015 election and ensure that the body forges a formidable force to tackle issues bedeviling its people.
“It is a fulfillment of the convention we held at Ofunopoama, Edo State in June. In that convention, we agreed that all elections should be held in clans, chapters and zones, both in Nigeria and in Diaspora, and so we set out a timetable and what we are experiencing here is in fulfilment of the mandate we got from Ofunama,” he said.
According to him, “We have conducted elections in central zones, comprising of Bayelsa and part of River State, today (Saturday), we are at the Western Zone, comprising of Edo, Ondo and Delta State and by next week, we will be in Eastern Zone, comprising of Akwa-Ibom and River States.
“After that, we should be in Lagos and as well as Abuja. From the first week of September, we will be heading to UK, America and South Africa chapter.
“The point is that the IYC can never be complete until the structures are reorganised. We are reorganising it for effectiveness.
“You know the IYC itself is a grassroots mobilisation structure and so in order for us to drive our message home, we needed to reorganise along the clans and today if you go round the entire Ijaw communities, you would discover that the awareness of IYC has increased and we have structures in every community.
“The essence of those structures is to enable us drive our messages to the communities. For instance in the Ijaw nation, there are issues of pipeline vandalisation and oil bunkering, that is going on and in order for us to be able to stop some of these, we needed a grassroot mobilisation organ that would reach out to the communities.
“In the past two months, we have being going round every community to conduct elections, to set up structures and it is those structures that have come to this point today to elect their Western leaders.
“Of course you know that IYC has the clan leadership, zonal leadership and the national leadership and today what we are doing is a fulfilment of conventional mandate and for us as a new leadership to take charge of the Ijaw nation.
“2015 is a year of politics and we want to mobilise our people and for our people to be properly mobilised, we must put structures that reach out to the grassroot in place.
“Today we are going round the Ijaw nation to bring forces together. Today we have moved on as a family and we believe that we are going to be stronger and firmer as IYC to resolve the problems bedeviling our people, especially the problem of ignorance.”
