We Will Crush Operation Crocodile Smile, If They Dare Step Into Us
The Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, has vowed to crush Operation Crocodile Smile, if they are ever deployed to the Niger Delta region, adding that, the people of Niger Delta will resist any Military exercise in the region.
President of the body, Roland Oweilaemi Pereotubo, in a statement by his Media Aide, Alaowei Cleric, on Wednesday, said that rather than embark on the Military drill, Buhari should employ the strategy of negotiation as a means of resolving agitations.
He said: “The plan by the Nigerian Armed Forces to extend its ongoing Military drill in the South-East to the South-South and South-West, is a declaration of war against defenceless Southern Nigerians. The so-called ill-conceived Military exercise which has already gotten international condemnations, if carried out in the peaceful Niger Delta region, will be seen as an act of belligerent against hapless Nigerians. Nothing can justify the Military to carry out such provocative exercise, especially now that the Federal Government has started implementing its promises to the people.”
Pereotubo viewed the exercise as a ploy by the Government to, “colonise the people of Southern Nigeria, through the instrumentalities of the nation’s Military bellipotent, in order to establish a theocratic State.”
He said: “No Southern part of the country is in need of a destructive Military drill, which consequences is pain and anguish. To us, the plan is to cause chaos in the Southern States; declare a state of emergency and apparently send the Northern Military warlords to colonise us in the name of interim Military administration in the troubled States.
“Niger Delta people will resist any attempt to cause a crisis in the region. We don’t need a Military drill. What we want is development. Let the Government send bulldozers to the creeks to carry out developmental projects.
“The money that the Military want to waste in this fruitless exercise, should be channeled into developmental projects in the region. No previous Military exercise has ever yielded any good result apart from causing mayhem on the people. We do not expect any good thing to come out from this planned exercise. It will only end up causing an untold havoc on the lives and property in the region.”
Maintaining that restructuring remains the solution to Nigeria’s problems, IYC said: “The solution to the agitations in Southern Nigeria is restructuring, true federalism, and self-determination, in line with international best practices. Previous Governments had adopted Military approach to address the Niger Delta crisis, but they all failed.
“President Buhari cannot win the battle by the trigger. Dialogue remains the best option to end all forms of agitations in Southern Nigeria. The Federal Government will be inflicting a devastating havoc on the nation’s crawling economy, should it allow the Military to carry out its belligerent drill in the region.
“If any part of this country requires a Military drill, it is the North-East. Let the Military carry out its drill in the Lake Chad Basin, where Boko Haram sect have killed and chased out oil workers at ease from their drilling sites.
