The Movement for the Survival of Izon Ethnic Nationality in the Niger Delta (MOSIEND), has called on the leadership of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), to apologise to the minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, for allegedly accusing him of being behind the current fuel scarcity in the Niger Delta region.
The IYC had gone to the media calling on President Bola Tinubu to reshuffle his cabinet and move Lokpobiri to another office where his alleged incompetence would not be noticed, alleging that the Ministry of Petroleum Resources is too big for him to handle.
The group also blamed the minister of state for the current fuel crisis in the country and the delay in the kickoff of the Port Harcourt Refinery; accusing him of mismanaging his office and causing untold pains and hardship on the citizenry.
But, MOSIEND, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt yesterday by its national president, Dr Kennedy West, asked the IYC to immediately withdraw the statement and beg Lokpobiri for forgiveness.
West lamented the manner in which people who claimed to be Ijaws rushed to the public to publish falsehood and made derogatory statements against their leaders too often.
He asked those behind the publication to take a deep moment to ask themselves if those things they said about Lokpobiri are actually true “because it is unbelievable that Ijaw men/women could say such things about their own brother.
“Ordinarily, we wouldn’t have commented on the issue but that after deep thinking, we saw the need to caution those behind the publication as it doesn’t reflect the true position of things.”