BY  Emma Amaize & SAMUEL  OYADONGHA

WARRI—THE Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, alleged, yesterday, that Northern leaders and governors were instigating the people of the Niger Delta to take up arms against the Federal Government under the leadership of President Goodluck Jonathan after they failed to use Boko Haram to achieve their hidden agenda.

It will be recalled that in a position paper addressed to Northern delegates at the ongoing conference, the Northern governors, Arewa Consultative Forum and others, had demanded for the rejection of resource control, reduction of 13 per cent derivation to five per cent for only onshore oil, scrapping of the amnesty programme for ex-Niger Delta agitators, Niger-Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Niger Delta Ministry, among others.

IYC, in its reaction by its spokesman, Mr. Eric Omare, said: “The content of the Northern position papers, as it relates to ownership and management of hydrocarbon resources found in the Niger Delta region, is highly provocative, insulting, inciting, unpatriotic and deliberately prepared to instigate Niger Deltans to take up arms against the Federal Government of Nigeria under the leadership of Jonathan.

“Some Northern leaders want to achieve their hidden agenda of making Nigeria ungovernable for Jonathan, which they had failed to achieve through Boko Haram. We condemn the consistent opposition of some Northern delegates to the demand for resource control and restate the right of the people of the Niger Delta to the ownership of the oil and gas found in their lands.”