Ijaw Youth Congress warns Buhari not to arrest Goodluck over arms corruption scandal

NIGER Delta socio-cultural organisation the Ijaw Youths Congress (IYC) has warned the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government not to contemplate arresting former president Dr Goodluck Jonathan over corruption allegations.

 

Dr Jonathan is at the centre of a massive corruption scandal at the moment, involving the spending of $21bn meant for military hardware. According to investigations, the money was diverted to private pockets and used to fund Dr Jonathan's 2015 re-election campaign, with government officials and military generals pocketing huge sums too.

 

Several of these government officials and members of Dr Jonathan's Peoples Democratic Party are currently facing trial for their role in the affair. However, the IYC has warned that any attempt to arrest the former president would be stiffly resisted.

 

At a meeting yesterday which tool place at the Wellington Hotel in Effurrun, Delta State to mark the 2016  Major Isaac Boro Day, the IYC criticised the present administration for limiting its anti-corruption campaign only to the Jonathan regime. Its meeting, which had the theme “The ideals of Adaka Boro and the renewed militancy in the Niger Delta: The way forward,” discussed the region's problem too.

 

IYC president, Udengs Eradiri, urged the federal government to probe the Halliburton bribery case under ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, if it wanted Nigerians to take its anti-corruption campaign seriously. On the renewed militancy in the region, he said the opening of the Maritime University, Okerenkoko, Delta State, for academic activities was the first condition for a roundtable discussion with the federal government.

 

Mr Eradiri added: “People have started discussing. There was a meeting in Abuja yesterday but I told them that such a meeting would not work.

 

 “If they want us to talk, they must first open the Maritime University and start admitting students, then we would now sit and talk. The same issues for which Adaka Boro and Ken Saro-Wiwa were killed are the same issues the Niger Delta Avengers are raising.

 

He pointed out that if the government settled these issues and the avengers would fizzle away. Prominent rights activist, Tony Uranta, who also spoke at the occasion said Isaac Boro and Ken Saro-Wiwa died fighting for the emancipation of the Niger Delta and later came along the likes of Asari Dokubo, Tompolo and others.

 

In addition, Mr  Uranta called on President Buhari to reassure Niger Delta youths that the amnesty programme would not be cancelled if the peace in the region was to be sustained, noting that there were many beneficiaries who had not gone on training. He said the cancellation of the programme would further throw the region into another round of militancy, which would negatively affect the nation’s already dwindling economy.