Barely 48 hours after the Olu of Warri, Ogiame Ikenwoli backed the deployment of troops to Delta Waterways, the Itsekiri National Youth Council, INYC have thrown its weight behind the Monarch, saying ‘Operation Crocodile Smile’ just launched by the Joint Task Force, Operation Delta Safe was necessary to curtail criminality in the Niger Delta.
In a Press Statement issued Monday August 29 in Warri, Delta State by Public Relations Officer of INYC, Prince Stanley Emiko (Jnr.) the apex Itsekiri youth body averred that bombing of critical crude oil and gas installations by Niger Delta Avengers and other militants, which have adversely affected the Nation’s economy would be seriously addressed with the launch of ‘Operation Crocodile Smile’.
The statement expressed optimism that the military will be professional in the ‘Operation Crocodile Smile’ and enjoined law abiding citizens in Delta Waterways as well as other parts of the Niger Delta to go about their legitimate businesses, noting that only those with criminal intent would criticize the presence of security officials constitutionally empowered to protect lives and the country’s vital assets.
While condemning the ‘non inclusion of other ethnic Nationalities’ in the ongoing dialogue to fashion out a way forward for genuine development of the Niger Delta after $40billion was purportedly frittered away in the last 12 years, INYC wondered why the Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu “preferred to visit an Ijaw community to sympathize with them when members of Niger Delta Avengers claimed responsibility for bombing crude oil and gas installations in Itsekiri communities”.
According to INYC, three Itsekiris were invited few hours to the stakeholders’ meeting convened by Chief E.K. Clark at PTI Conference Centre, Effurun and called on the federal government to exercise caution in the ongoing dialogue so as not to make the peace loving tribes in the Niger Delta take up arms with a view to wrecking more economic havoc.
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