May 16th ADAKA Day Celebration: IYC National General Secretary, Bristol Visits Daar Communication South-South

By Tamunoemi Wari

In a bid to create a robust relationship with the media, the National Secretary General of Ijaw Youth Congress, Worldwide, Engr. Emmanuel Bristol Alagbariya on Tuesday paid a courtesy visit to the management of leading media outfit, DAAR Communications Limited, operators of African Independent Television, (AIT) and Raypower FM.

While on the visit the secretary general commended the organization for its dogged and objective reporting, adding that DAAR Communication has made a mark which others are striving to emulate. He said the visit has become necessary following their leading role in information dissemination in the country.

Bristol noted that the visit was also premised on the need to create a very vibrant synergy between the apex ijaw youth body and DAAR Communications, a frontline media outfit in the country so that both can complement each other in the line of duty to achieve set objectives.

Similarly he explained that the visit was also to request for support for the coverage of the upcoming Isaac Adaka Boro Day, slated for May 16th 2014.

The IYC National officer who came with a delegation from the Eastern zone of IYC, disclosed that the Ijaw Youth Congress was born with the desire to liberate the youths and people of Ijaw ethnic extraction from perceived marginalization, deliberate impoverishment of the region and sustained neglect by successive government and other oppressors.

He said IYC was born on the on the 11th of December 1999, after a critical meeting by Ijaw sons and daughters was held at Kiama in Bayelsa state, where discussions on the way forward for the ijaw nation were addressed. The meeting according to him metamorphosed to what we have today as the historic Kiama declaration, giving birth to Ijaw Youth Congress, IYC as the apex youth body and voice of the Ijaw youths.

Speaking about the upcoming Isaac Boro Day event, he said 'we are proud of our son and hero, late Isaac Adaka Boro who started this struggle, and we believe the only way we can continue to accord him respect and be grateful for what he started as Ijaw liberation is to celebrate him yearly – that is what May 16 portends for every ijaw youth' he was quoted as saying.

He used the medium to condemn in strong terms the unnecessary bloodshed by the Islamic extremist religious group, Boko haram, saying absolute peace has never been achieved in the atmosphere of violence and bloodletting.

He also condemned the senseless abduction of innocent school girls by the sect, saying the girls should not be used to settle whatever perceived grievances they are nursing. He admonished sponsors of Boko haram saying they must stop threatening the sovereignty and unity of the country.

Finally he said IYC is pledging its unalloyed and unflinching solidarity for the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan come 2015.

The IYC scribe noted that IYC are peace loving people who have penchant for the use of dialogue at all times in achieving its objective.

In his remark, the Zonal director of DAAR Communications, South-South, Mr. Barri Pereomongu welcomed the delegation, saying his organization shares similar ideal of peace and social harmony in carrying out their services. He said as an Ijaw man he was opportune to meet some of the ijaw heros who fought for the liberation, and added that he is very supportive of the ijaw struggle.

He assured the delegation that AIT and Raypower FM will do all within their powers to support their genuine cause whenever they are called upon. He described IYC as a very serious youth organization going by what it is established to achieve for the people of the region.

Mr. Pereomongu described the objective of the youth body as complimentary to their social responsibility and charged it to remain steadfast on its set out goals.




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