Isoko youths deny link with Avengers over bombing of oil installations

Group condemns ceasefire agreement with militants
The Isoko youths, under the aegis of Isoko Dynamic Youths Association (IDYA), have debunked claims that they were part of the militant groups bombing oil installations in the region.

President of the group, Jamnogo Blessing, in a press statement in Yenagoa described media reports linking him and the group with the Niger Delta Avengers as “maliciously misconstrued and an attempt to pitch him and the group, not only against the Federal Government of Nigeria, but also the Isoko people of Delta State.”

Besides, another group in the region, Niger Delta Movement for Socio-Economic Inclusion (NDMSEI), has warned the Federal Government not to accede to the demands of the Avengers or any other militant group, especially on ceasefire agreement, saying that they (Avengers) were only using that as a ploy to buy time to await their weapons.

In a statement sent via e-mail and signed by Oki Ajokun and Imana Ejukoko, Chairman and Secretary respectively on behalf of the group said the Federal Government must begin action now before the crisis snowballs into another ethnic crisis.

The NDMSEI urged the Federal Government to fortify all the Naval warships so as to ease the pressure of the militant groups and defeat them before they start bombing flow-stations in the offshore.

It said: “The military needs more fast-speed boats and not warships to run the rivers and creeks.“The Federal Government should do more of consultation with other ethnic groups in the Niger Delta who do not believe in burning of houses, killing of their neighbours and bombing and destruction of government and multinational facilities.”

The Isoko youths further said: “The Isoko Dynamic Youths Association (IDYA) is a socio-political organisation and a non-militant group whose goal is to canvass for welfare of not only its members but the entire youths and people of Isoko in Delta State and beyond.

“We are not militants and we do not have any link whatsoever with the Niger Delta Avengers or any other militant group under any guise.“As an organisation that promotes peace and abhors violence, we therefore condemn the indiscriminate destruction and bombing of oil facilities by militant groups in the Niger Delta and state unequivocally that dialogue remains the only path to sustainable peace and development in the Niger Delta and not violence or militant confrontation.

While urging the people of Idheze and Isoko to disregard the rumours making the rounds, the youths said that no amount of blackmail or campaign of calumny would deter them from pursuing the noble objectives of the group.