The Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) has resolved to agitate for the inception of a regional security outfit for the Niger Delta region and the South-South geopolitical zone.
Peter Timothy Igbifa, the IYC President, on Friday, revealed this in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Igbifa asserted, while reeling out his New Year address, that, like the Amotekun (Western Nigeria Security Network) in the South-West, the South-South had to institute its own security outfit to police the region.
Igbifa cited the security challenges plaguing the Ijaw-speaking communities and the zone as a whole as some of the reasons for the call.
He insisted that the youths of the region were ready would pile pressure on the governors of the region to seek all executive and legislative requirements needed to set up the security outfit.
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“We are not alien to the reports of infiltrations by the Fulani herdsmen and other groups in our bushes and environment. The recurrent discovery of guns and live ammunition on the highways is a clear indication that we must be prepared at all times,” Igbifa began in his new year address.
“The news of our women being raped and killed in bushes, farmers intimidated and maimed on a regular basis and travelers robbed and killed is becoming unbearable. It is no longer news that most of our city’s vigilantes are northerners holding machetes and safeguarding our own territories. This seems ridiculous as it reveals our highhandedness in trivializing possible attack against us all.
“We, therefore, call on all structures of the council, zonal chapters and clans to set up mechanisms to check this unfortunate security threat in our region. My team and I are seriously considering the establishment of our own regional security outfit in line with the proposal made by the governors of our region. We shall push for this outfit and impress it upon the governors to invoke required legislative process to give it a legal backing,” he stated.