The umbrella body of all Ijaw youths in Nigeria and the Diaspora, Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide (IYC), has threatened to embark on a mass protest that will shut down the operations of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) over alleged compulsory retirement of some Ijaw people by the Corporation.
The IYC spokesman, Binebai Princewill, who issued the threat in a statement on Wednesday, alleged that the recent compulsory retirement of some Ijaw indigenes in the NNPCL was “ill-motivated against indigenous people of the Niger Delta region.”
Princewill who also called for the urgent reinstatement of the affected staff, emphasized that “anything other than this within a few days from now will lead to a total shutdown of NNPCL activities across the country.”
“This forceful retirement of Ijaws in the NNPCL is something that we will resist with the last drop of our blood,” the IYC spokesman said.
“We see the exercise as an attempt to exclude the Ijaws from the scheme of things and a well-hatched plot to only employ northerners and Yorubas in the NNPCL,” he said.
The entire Niger Delta community will be left with no other choice but to shut down the NNPCL and other oil activities in the country.
“IYC will also resist, at all costs, the sale of AGIP Oil Company to Oando without making it public for qualified Ijaws and Niger Deltans to bid for its takeover.
While we love Nigeria as a country and will be ready to do all within our powers for a united one Nigeria, we will not accept any attempt to unjustly undo sons and daughters of Ijaws occupying such sensitive offices in the Nigerian state. It is the promise of IYC that we will not allow this injustice to fester,” he added.
