The youth wing of Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has rejected the endorsement of the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) Presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, by some members of the national leadership of the forum.
Speaking at the end of an emergency meeting on Sunday in Yenagoa, Bayelsa, the headquarters of PANDEF, the leadership of PANDEF Youth Wing, South-South States, said those who purportedly endorsed Obi in a meeting of the Southern Nigeria and Middle Belt Leaders recently were on their own.
They claimed that Obi’s endorsement was done without due consultations with stakeholders, particularly the youth body of PANDEF, comprising national officers and state chapter chairmen.
A communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, said the purported endorsement was against the spirit and letters of the PANDEF Constitution in Article 1 (1) which stipulated that PANDEF was a non-political, non-partisan, and non-religious organization of the Niger Delta people.
They stated that in a meeting where sensitive decisions were to be taken, it must involve all the national executive officers and state chapter chairmen, including those of the youth wings.
They added that such meetings must be at the headquarters of the organization in Yenagoa.
“There was no time PANDEF ever held a meeting to debate the need to participate or take a position as a group on the 2023 general elections and that those who purportedly endorsed Obi at that meeting spoke for themselves and not PANDEF and the South-South region of the Niger Delta.
“That the major focus of PANDEF is to promote sons and daughters of the region on issues of public interest that bear direct and indirect impact on the well-being of the Niger Delta people as that is the constitutional aim and objective of the PANDEF Constitution.
“That the same persons, without any meeting with stakeholders, have given ultimatum to a son of the Niger Delta, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, the Vice Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to drop his ambition for reasons best known to them and that this does not have the blessing of the youths of region.”
The meeting was presided over by the National Deputy Youth Leader, Mr. Vincent Oyibode, and signed by Edo Youth Leader, Mr. Don Ben; Rivers Youth Leader, Mr. Henry George; Akwa Ibom Youth Leader, Mr. Victor Asuquo; Cross River Youth Leader, Chief Ani Esin; Delta State Youth Leader, Chief Sylvester Okumagba and Bayelsa Youth Leader, Mr. Berenengia Samuel.
