INC clears way for Yenagoa elections on 13 April
BoT Chairman, Alabo Dumo Lulu-Briggs, disclosed this while briefing journalists after more than four hours of the board’s inaugural meeting held on Sunday in Yenagoa.
Lulu-Briggs, who also heads the Oruwari Briggs War Canoe House in Abonnema, Rivers State, said following consultations with the National Electoral Committee, there was no turning back on the polls. He added that voting could be conducted either physically or electronically.
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Nathan Tamarapreye, Yenagoa
The Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Ijaw National Congress (INC) has confirmed that elections into the organisation’s National Executive Committee will proceed today (Monday, April 13) in Yenagoa as scheduled.
BoT Chairman, Alabo Dumo Lulu-Briggs, disclosed this while briefing journalists after more than four hours of the board’s inaugural meeting held on Sunday in Yenagoa.
Lulu-Briggs, who also heads the Oruwari Briggs War Canoe House in Abonnema, Rivers State, said following consultations with the National Electoral Committee, there was no turning back on the polls. He added that voting could be conducted either physically or electronically.
The INC BoT has Chief Fidelis Agbiki as its Secretary. Other members include prominent figures from across the Niger Delta, such as first-class traditional rulers, academics, high-ranking retired military officers and former leaders of the apex Ijaw socio-cultural organisation.
The elections were initially scheduled for 7 March but were suspended following legal disputes. An interim injunction was granted by a Rivers State High Court on 6 March over the alleged disqualification of some candidates, after a suit was filed by one of the contenders, Macdonald Igbadiwei.
Meanwhile, INC President, Professor Benjamin Okaba, has dismissed claims of a purported suspension of the 13 April polls by the Council of Ijaw Traditional Rulers and Elders (CITRE), an organ of the INC.
Okaba maintained that CITRE operates under his leadership, stressing that the INC National Convention remains the organisation’s highest decision-making body.
However, the Chairman of CITRE, HRM King Bubaraye Dakolo Agada IV, Ibenanaowei of Ekpetiama Kingdom and Chairman of the Bayelsa State Traditional Rulers Council, argued on Sunday that conducting the elections in Bayelsa would be futile, citing the guiding principles of the INC constitution.
Responding, Okaba rejected Dakolo’s position, insisting that all CITRE activities are subject to his authority as INC President.
“You can see that what he is doing is ill-intended and driven by personal interest. It is both selfish and destructive,” Okaba said.
