Ijaw youths warn Buhari against plans to deploy army to Niger Delta

Ijaw youths warn Buhari against plans to deploy army to Niger Delta 

- The Ijaw Youths Council has warned the Nigerian military against it's proposed Operation Crocodile Smile in the south-south.

 - The group said Buhari's administration is planning to cause crises in the oil rich region by using the army.

 - They warned the government to rather send the army after marauding herdsmen and Boko Haram terrorists.

       

       The Ijaw Youths Council has warned President Muhammadu Buhari against the proposed military's Operation Crocodile Smile in the south-south region. The group said that the proposed army operation in the southwest and south-south is a declaration of war against defenceless southern Nigerians. 

   In a statement by the group's president, Roland Oweilaemi Pereotubo, the group said the government should deploy the army to counter marauding herdsmen and Boko Haram in the north. Pereotubo said: “The plan by the Nigerian armed forces to extend its ongoing military drill in the south east to the south south and south west is a declaration of war against defenceless southern Nigerians. The so-called ill-conceived military exercise which has already gotten international condemnations, if carried out in the peaceful Niger Delta region, will be seen as an act of belligerent against hapless Nigerians. "Nothing can justify the military to carry out such provocative exercise, especially now that the federal government has started implementing its promises to the people.

       “No southern part of the country is in need of a destructive military drill which consequences is pain and anguish. To us, the plan is to cause chaos in the southern states; declare state of emergency and apparently send the northern military warlords to colonise us in the name of interim military administration in the troubled states. "Niger Delta people will resist any attempt to cause crisis in the region. We don’t need military drill. What we want is development. Let the government send bulldozers to the creeks to carry out developmental projects.

   “The money that the military want to waste in this fruitless exercise should be channeled on developmental projects in the region. No previous military exercise has ever yielded any good result apart from causing mayhem on the people. We do not expect any good thing to come out from this planned exercise. It will only end up causing an untold havoc on the lives and property in the region." Speaking on the need to restructure Nigeria fast before its too late, the group said Nigeria needs to be restructured fast and nothing can be achieved through military actions. He said: “The solution to the agitations in southern Nigeria is restructuring, true federalism and self-determination in line with international best practices. Previous governments had adopted military approach to address the Niger Delta crisis but they all failed. “President Buhari cannot win the battle by the trigger. Dialogue remains the best option to end all forms of agitations in southern Nigeria. The federal government will be inflicting a devastating havoc on the nation’s crawling economy should it allows the military to carry out its belligerent drill in region.

   “If any part of this country requires military drill, it is the north east. Let the military carry out its drill in the Lake Chad Basin where Boko Haram sects have killed and chased out oil workers at ease from their drilling sites.

   “The major threats to national security are the Boko Haram sects and the murderous Fulani herdsmen. While the military was quick to illegally and unconstitutionally declare armless IPOB members as terrorists for peacefully agitating for their rights, it becomes so dumb and voiceless to the gruesome genocide being carried out by the killer Fulani herdsmen against Nigerians. ”President Buhari should direct his war-mongering and bloodthirsty armed forces to carry out their military exercise in places the herdsmen have being massacring Nigerians without provocation. These dangerous human species have being moving with dangerous weapons in the name of self-defense with which they have being using to commit genocide in Nigeria with impunity. “In spite of the atrocities this dangerous group who have been declared as the number three most dangerous terrorists organisation in the world, has committed against human race in Nigeria, the FG has not declared them as a terrorist group in Nigeria.

    “The world should not give deaf ears to the recent happenings in Nigeria. The crisis in the land is no longer an internal affairs of the country. Nigeria needs an urgent regional intervention to save the country from the imminent precipice. While the dust of insurgency caused by the military in the south eastern part of the country is barely coming down, the government is regrettably planning another military drill in the other Southern regions. “We are calling on the UN, EU, AU, ECOWAS and the world super powers to prevail on President Mohammadu Buhari to suspend his military exercise in Southern Nigeria." Meanwhile, the Biafra Independent Movement (BIM) has called on the federal government to take the Operation Python Dance to Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen in order to stop the act of terrorism in Nigeria. Anthony Nwodo, the regional administrator of BIM, said the Operation Python Dance in the southeast has an ulterior motive.