Clark, IBB Faceoff: Ijaw Youths Divided.

OSA OKHOMINA.

Ijaw Youths were yesterday divided over the faceoff between the national Ijaw leaders, Chief Edwin Clark and former military president General Ibrahim Babangida on the Boko Haram insurgency.
   Clark had alleged that Boko Haram is sponsored by northern leaders, including former military president General Ibrahim Babangida.
While the Ijaw Youths, under the aegis of the Ijaw Peoples Development Initiative (IPDI), through its National Coordinator, Comrade Ozobo Austin described as ‘face saving’ and “weakling” the defence of  General Ibrahim Babangida and other northern leaders to the accusation of Chief Edwin Clark,the State Secretary of the Civil Liberty Organisation (CLO) and a prominent native of Bayelsa State, Comrade Morris Alagoa, argued that the allegation levelled by the Ijaw leader against the Northern Leaders was ‘tribal sentiment’ and that President Goodluck Jonathan was shying away from his responsibility as the Commander-In-Chief  of the armed forces and president of the nation.
Speaking on the development yesterday in Yenagoa, Comrade Alagoa said though the Ijaw leader’s comment was not new, “the way it came out was wrong. It has too much ethnic coloration. I think the Ijaw leader is doing what he is doing because an Ijaw son is the President and handling issues of terrorism.
“The Ijaw leader should know that the same Jonathan and other security agencies announced that they knew those behind the terrorist attacks. But Jonathan is handling the issue with kid gloves and not hitting hard as a President should.Our Chief is not a security agent and if the President is leaving the gap on the matter to the detriment of the people,surely the statesman has no option but to fill the seemingly vacant position of authority.”
In its position, the group known as the Ijaw Peoples Development Initiatives (IPDI), argued that: “The North hates the truth and whoever stands for truth cannot be their friend.
“What is now wrong if Papa Clark said IBB should be arrested or said IBB is a boko haram sponsor? I want  the north to be reasonable, I charge them to go back and read Papa Clark statement once again maybe they may hastily get him wrong.”
IPDI insists that  Clark believe in one Nigeria that is why he is worried.” I was forced to react when some northern leaders, Kaita Mohamed and Dr. Junaid Mohamed used abusive words against our national leader. When a learned person write he do not abuse but he speaks the fact, but only people of low reasoning does so”.