The Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide has disowned Simon Ekpa, saying, “The Ijaw people are Nigerians, original occupants and dwellers of the Niger Delta region.”
Ekpa, who is from the eastern part of Nigeria, claims to be the leader of Biafra in exile, as seen in a viral video posted on X.
He also tried to establish Ijaw territories as part of the Biafra state.
In the said video, Ekpa stated that Nigerian soldiers attacked his Biafran people and Biafra republic as he was referring to the Okuama attack in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State where 17 soldiers were killed, and the subsequent onslaught carried out by the military on Igbomotoro and Peremabiri Ijaw communities in Bayelsa.
But the IYC, in a statement signed by its spokesman, Binebai Princewill, copies of which were made available to journalists in Warri, Delta State on Friday, disowned Ekpa, stressing that “the Ijaw people have never at any point in time been part of Biafra and can never be part of Biafra.”
The statement noted that the Congress is already dealing with a lot of issues regarding the attack on the soldiers and the subsequent invasion of Ijaw communities by the military, resulting in the loss of many lives.
It further stated that “the attack on the soldiers had been condemned and it remained condemned” just as the IYC had also “charged the military to go after only the criminals and not the killing of innocent people which we have also condemned in Igbomotoro and Peremabiri.
CREDIT: PUNCH