Former President Goodluck Jonathan has been accused by a South-South Youth group, Ekpeye Youth Congress (EYC) of favouring Ijaw people over other ethnic groups in the South-South region.
The group, in a rejoinder jointly signed by its President-General and Acting Secretary, Comrade Emenike Uriah Musa and Anthony Onyemachi respectively, debunked a purported assertion by Senator Shehu Sani that the people of the Niger Delta were the major beneficiaries of Jonathan’s administration.
It said that the major beneficiaries of Jonathan’s appointments and programmes were his people from the Ijaw ethnic group, whom they alleged were put into key positions while neglecting other ethnic groups throughout the period he served as president.
“The attention of the Ekpeye Youth Congress (EYC) World-Wide has been drawn to the vituperation of one Mallam Shehu Sani, Senator Representing Kaduna North Senatorial District in the print media, to the effect that the people of Niger Delta are the only ones who benefitted in political appointments and infrastructural development in the former President Goodluck Jonathan Administration, and that the North and South West did not benefit.”
The group added that apart from the Ijaws, other major ethnic groups like the Urhobos, Ibibios, Anangs, Ogonis,Efiks, Ikwerres, Anangs, Etches, Ekpeyes, Ndokwas,Ogojas, Ogbas, Binis and others were left out.
“The beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty Programme were 90% of Ijaw extraction,” the group said.