Yenagoa—The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) has denied plans to embark on a million man march against the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
Ebilade Ekerefe, national spokesman of the IYC, made this known in a statement sent to mangrovepen.ng on Sunday.
According to him, although the IYC is angered by the passage and subsequent signing of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which is now an Act of Parliament, a protest march is not on the agenda of the group.
He stated that the group is open to a town hall meeting with the minister of state for petroleum resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, over the provision of the Act.
In his words: “We are aware of civil society organizations planning to carry out civil protests in Abuja against the daylight robbery meted on the Niger Delta people.
“If that happens, we shall be in solidarity with them.
“What we said is that President Buhari and the minister of state for petroleum resources should not come to the Niger Delta region for now because of the alleged roles they played in the signing of the PIA which has resulted in palpable anger of the people.”
Ekerefe revealed that “if they do, we can assure them that they will be greeted with boos and cheers. It will not be the first time such disgraceful treatment will be meted on leaders.
“The only way out is for the honourable minister of state to come back to his region and organize town hall meetings with stakeholders and explain why the agreed 10% was reduced to a meager 3%.
“Until that is done, our position still stands,” he added.
