2019: Former IYC president joins race in Bayelsa, as over 100 picks PDP assembly forms

The immediate past President of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide, Udengs Eradiri, has joined the race for the House of Representatives seat in Bayelsa State. Eradiri, who disclosed this, yesterday, shortly after submitting his expression of interest form at the party’s secretariat in Yenagoa, said it’s time people of the Niger Delta region began to move from street agitations to taking political powers.

The former IYC leader is running on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to represent Kolokuma/Opokuma/Yenagoa Constituency.This is coming, as no fewer than 100 people have so far picked the PDP nomination form to contest the September 13, 2018 State House of Assembly primaries in the state.

The state party chairman, Hon. Cleopas Moses, who stated this during a live interview programme monitored on the state owned radio station, Glory FM, said of the number, 13 are from one constituency in the state. Moses said the development confirmed that the PDP is a choice party and still remains the most formidable platform to win any election in 2019.

Eradiri, who spoke after submitting his nomination form said: “I have just started the process of taking leadership. As a young man, I wouldn’t have been participating in the struggles for justice in the Niger Delta and then when it is time for leadership, I will sit by the corner.“The laws in Nigeria are not favouring the Niger Delta and until we begin to change the laws and rules, we cannot make progress.” He warned against imposition of candidate during the party’s primaries, urging party leadership to ensure level-playing field for all aspirants.