By Kingsley Adegboye
A youth leader in the Niger Delta region, Mr. Anthony Ogoni, has flayed the Ijaw Patriots, over its position that some serving lawmakers at the National and States’ Assemblies were not eligible to seek fresh mandate of the electorates in the 2011 general elections.

Ogoni, who commended the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, for its position that the lawmakers, especially those seeking fourth term, were free to seek re-election as many times as the electorates allowed them, said the position of the group was alien to the constitution and at variance with democratic tenets worldwide.

IYC had backed the lawmakers seeking a fourth term mandate, saying that it was in exercise of their constitutional rights.

Ogoni criticised Ijaw Patriots for condemning  the IYC, adding that the group was not and could not be speaking for the Ijaw people.

The youth leader described Ijaw Patriots as a faceless group, whose leaders were not known to have impacted on the lives of the people.

He said the antics of Ijaw Patriots were targeted at blackmailing unsuspecting politicians and deceive gullible members of the public.

Who are the Ijaw Patriots, who are the personalities behind this body. Who are they and in what way have they been able to cause positive change to the economic, social and political well being of the people?” Ogoni added.

“They are faceless people whose stock_in_trade is to pull down people and misinform the unsuspecting public. Some of them have serious credibility problem, they are political neophytes.

Politics is all about ideas and not about people, it is about what you intend to do for the people. So the IP stop the blackmail and start to sell its ideas to the people if its leaders feel that they have good and popular candidates.”