Simon Utebor,Yenagoa
The umbrella body of the Ijaw youths, Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide, has been thrown into disarray following the emergence of two parallel electoral committees for the election of a new national executive council of the IYC.
It was learnt that while Udengs Eradiri, the incumbent president of the IYC, formally inaugurated a nine-member electoral committee during the council’s national convention at Okrika, Rivers State, another national convention also took place at Toru-Ebeni, Bayelsa State, where a seven-man electoral committee was constituted.
The Okrika meeting produced Oscar Isu as chairman of the electoral body while Jeremiah Owoupele, a former IYC spokesman, emerged head of the electoral committee at the Toru-Ebeni convention.
The spokesman for the IYC, Eric Omare, while announcing the outcome of the Okrika convention in a statement on Tuesday, said “the tenure of the Udengs Eradiri-led executive council of the IYC will terminate on March 2, 2017.
“Isu’s committee, by its formal inauguration, has been given the mandate to commence the electoral process without delay,” he added.
But Owoupele in his acceptance speech contended that the conveners of the Toru-Ebeni convention relied on Article 7 of the IYC constitution to call for the meeting.
He described the setting up of the seven-member electoral committee chaired by him as “a solemn decision” taken at the convention.
Owoupele stated, “It’s my honour to accept that decision and I thank the over 2,000 youths that gathered, deliberated and arrived at that decision that I should serve them in the capacity of chairman to conduct the elections of the electoral committee with very distinguished personalities as members.”
But the incumbent President of the IYC, Eradiri, vowed that the Toru-Ebeni convention and its outcome would not stand.
He stated that the conveners could not rely on the old constitution of the IYC which had been reviewed to do what they had done.
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