You Can’t Threaten Atiku Or Northern Leaders, N’Delta Youth Leader Tells Militants

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Threats by some Niger Delta militants to declare former Vice President Atiku Abubakar a persona non grata in the region following his role in the ongoing crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been dismissed as nonsensical.

  Reacting to the position of former warlords under the aegis of Leadership Peace and Cultural Development Initiative, who made the threat at the weekend, Niger Delta youth leader, Comrade Timi Frank,  said the position depicted the ignorance of the group and only showed total lack of understanding of the crisis in the PDP.

Comrade Frank said it was wrong for the group to declare Atiku or indeed any northerner and Nigerian involved in the current crisis a persona non grata as the issue at stake was purely a party matter that should be be devoid of tribal, ethnic, religious or regional sentiments.

“It is on record that the Niger Delta region and its youths have benefited immensely from the vast business interests of the former Vice President even as till date it remains to be challenged that Atiku remains the single highest employer of labour in the Niger Delta region and has empowered both investors and politicians  from the region like no other Nigerian has, making him the bridge builder between the north and the south- south region.

“The PDP crisis is not a regional crisis but purely a party affair. While it is not out of place for interests in this circumstance to be galvanised, as is being done by the former Niger Delta warlords for President Jonathan, doing so with resort to threats only shows the total purile manner that some persons understand the crisis and are wanting to drag the nation into war for obvious selfish reasons,” the youth leader said.

Frank reminded the group of the enormous role the north played in the enthronement of the Jonathan presidency, noting that a strong tie exists between the north and south-south region that will outlive the Jonathan presidency.

While calling on the security agencies to immediately arrest and prosecute any individual or group(s) that aim to incite the public through inflammatory statements, Comrade Frank also called on security agencies to remain neutral in the ongoing crisis as actions such as the sealing off the New PDP secretariat was unlawful and could lead to the eventual breakdown of law and order.

Meanwhile,the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has faulted the threat by some of Niger Delta ex-militants to declare Atiku a persona non grata  in the region and therefore asked the former fighters to withdraw the declaration, an online medium, the Premium Times reports

In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Anthony Sani, and made available yesterday, the ACF described the ex-militants threat as misguided, unacceptable and alien to democratic tenets.

The statement reads in part, “Threats such as the one from the Niger Delta ex-militants are a negation of dialogue and the political process playing itself out on account of the breakup of the PDP into factions.”

Some leaders of former militant groups under the aegis of the Leadership, Peace and Cultural Development Initiative had during  a meeting in Yenogoa, Bayelsa state on Saturday, declared Atiku unwanted in the Niger Delta and accused  him of using the region’s oil wealth to fight against its interest-which is President Goodluck Jonathan.