IYC Advises Ex-Agitators Against Protest

The Ijaw Youth Council world-wide (IYC) has called on youth in the Niger Delta region, particularly those under the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), to shelve their plans to block the East-West Road in protest over the non-payment of their monthly stipends.
In a statement issued by the President, IYC, Udengis Eradiri, in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, and made available to The Tide by email, the umbrella body of Niger Delta youth, said the amnesty programme was in the process of winding down.
Eradiri explained that since the programme was winding down, it was obvious that the office will not be able to meet up the stipends to everybody, especially due to the shortfall in the budget for the programme.
The IYC president called on the beneficiaries of the programme to maximize what they have benefited from the programme to sustain themselves in the future.
“The problem is not the Coordinator of the Amnesty Programme, Brigadier-General Paul Boroh (rtd), the problem is: anything that starts must have an end. Government has been shouting before today that the programme will wind down in December last year, but we engaged the government for extension.
“They listened to us, and they shifted the programme to 2018. Between now and 2018, it will be winding down, and so, it is expected we move on, once you are trained and issued certificates, there is no more stipend,” he said.
Eradiri said that, “a man who has been educated should take his certificate and get a job and earn a living; government has done theirs. l like calling a spade a spade, so that we don’t  waste our time blocking roads when we know that at the of the day, we will only have the military to content with.”

Susan Serekara-Nwikhana