IYC warns Simon Ekpa: Ijaws not part of Biafra

The umbrella body of Ijaw youths, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide, has sounded a note of warning to Simon Ekpa and his group of Biafra agitators to steer clear of the Niger Delta, saying that the Ijaw people are not part of Biafra and will never be.

The IYC made the assertion in response to an online video on X (Twitter) by Simon Ekpa, a Biafran crusader in exile claiming that Ijaws are part of Biafran state.

In a statement on Friday by the national spokesman for IYC, Amb. Binebai Yerin Princewill, the foremost Ijaw group said the Ijaw people would not tolerate any other reckless comment about their people and territories belonging to the Biafra.

Princewill said: “The attention of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide has been drawn to a strange video by one Simon Ekpa, who is from the eastern part of Nigeria, now masquerading as the leader of Biafra in exile. “In the said video posted on X, he tried to  establish  Ijaw territories as part of his imaginary Biafra state.

“In the said video, Ekpa expressed the point that  Nigerian soldiers attacked his Biafra people and Biafra republic. He was simply referring to the Okuama attack in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State on March 14, 2024 wherein 17 soldiers were killed and the subsequent onslaught carried out by the military on Igbomotoru and Peremabiri, Ijaw communities in Bayelsa State.

“The fundamental claim the renegade Biafra nationalist is making is that both Okuama community in Delta and Igbomotoru  in Bayelsa state are part of his purported Biafran State. He thus threatened  to unleash mayhem on Nigerian soldiers to avenge the death of civilians who had lost their lives in the military onslaught.”

However, the IYC spokesman said the Council was 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. Nation