Ijaw Youths Begin Manhunt For Abductors Of Clark's Son

BEVERLY HILLS, CA, April 04, (THEWILL) - A major manhunt for the abductors of Ebikeme, the son of the leader of Ijaw nation, Chief Edwin Clark, has begun in the creeks of Delta and Bayelsa States.

Leading the vanguard of the manhunt is the apex Ijaw youth organisation, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), which has constituted a crack team to fish out the kidnappers .

In a statement issued on Friday, the spokesman of the group, Eric Omare, said sequel to the IYC mandate,its officials in the Riverine Clans of Oporomor, Seimbiri, Ingbelebiri and Mein in Bayelsa and Delta States have swung into action to fish out the Ebikeme's kidnappers.

IYC said its investigation so far has revealed that the kidnappers may be hiding in the creeks around Delta and Bayelsa States close to the coast; that is the communities near the sea.

The statement said, though, from experience, kidnappers are never stationed in one place as they move from one place to the other to avoid been caught, all the Ijaw communities and community leaders in the communities close to the coastal parts of Delta and Bayelsa States have been contacted to form rescue team to comb all the creeks, towns and villages in a bid to free Ebikeme without delay.

The statement said the Ijaw people and communities are totally against kidnapping, sea piracy and other social vices.

In the same vein, some Ex-Niger Delta freedom fighters have volunteered to join forces with the IYC and security agencies to effect the release of Ebikeme This came as the IYC warned that ransom should not be paid to kidnappers, describing it as another case of commercial kidnapping.

Maintaining that there is a direct nexus between these crimes and the economic situation of the Niger Delta people, IYC called on multinational oil companies and state governments whose revenue has increased as a result of cessation of militancy in the Niger Delta region to perform their role of creating/providing jobs for the teeming youths in the post-amnesty era.

'The concept of the Federal Government amnesty programme in the Niger Delta was for the Federal Government to mainly take care of the training while the oil companies and state governments are supposed to mainly handle the area of creation and provision of jobs.

'The IYC believes that creation of job opportunities is the long term solution to these social vices.

'The IYC would come up with its anti kidnapping and anti sea piracy strategy after the All Ijaw Youths Summit to be hosted by the Bayelsa State Government on how to fight sea piracy, kidnapping, oil theft and other social vices,' the statement said.