Ijaw Youths Take Swipe At MASSOB, Reject Inclusion In Biafra

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The ijaw Youth Council Worldwide, the apex youth body of all youths has taken a swipe at one of the leaders of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) for claiming that the South South region is part of the Biafra territory.

In a statement, made available to newsmen, the spokesman for Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide, Barr. Henry Iyalla, said the attention of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) worldwide has been drawn to a statement credited to one MASSOB leader, Solomon Chukwu published in a national daily on Tuesday June 6, 2017, to the effect “that the south-south region is included in the territory of Biafra which MASSOB, IPOB and other self-determination movements are agitating for.”

Iyalla said that this same inclusion of the South south region in Biafra’s territory has been made by other Biafran leaders in different forums. But for the records, the IYC wishes to state that though the Ijaw and Niger Delta people identify with the Biafran struggle for self-determination, “the Ijaw and Niger Delta struggle for self-determination predates the Biafra agitations.

“It is on record that even before the Biafran declaration of independence in 1967, Major Jasper Adaka Boro, during the twelve-day revolution declared, a Niger- Delta Republic in 1966. This was before the advent and struggle for the actualization of Biafra,” he said.

Iyalla pointed out that the Ijaw and Niger Delta people had always maintained separate and distinct identity from “our Igbo brothers of the South East,” adding that “while we share in the Biafran agitation for self-determination, which is not in any way different from our agitation; we wish to clearly state that the Ijaw areas are not part and parcel of the territory of Biafra.

“We will collaborate with our South Eastern, Middle Belt and any other minority groups in the quest for self-determination based on mutual respect and common understanding. In the coming days, we will start the constructive engagement on these terms”, the IYC spokesman said.