The Eastern Zonal Chapter of the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, suspended Alhaji Asari Dokubo, the organization’s founder and former militant leader, on Sunday. Following Dokubo’s declaration of “Biafra de facto Customary Government,” the suspension was imposed.

Dokubo said in a statement released to journalists in Warri via Uche Mefor on the declaration of a ” Biafra de facto customary government ” that the time has come for them to take control of their own destiny, adding that the Igbo people have long suffered discrimination and marginalisation in Nigeria.

Apart from declaring himself the leader of the customary government, Dokubo also appointed Uche Mefor as the group’s Head of Information and Communication, George Onyibe as the group’s Secretary, and Emeka Esiri as the legal affairs officer. However, at the IYC’s zonal elective congress on Sunday, Festus Dango, Chairman of the IYC Okrika Clan, moved a motion to suspend Dokubo.

Dango said that Dokubo did not consult before revealing his Biafra contraption, and that the former rebel leader has been attempting to recruit other IYC members to join his Biafra adventure. Biafra is a “non-existent sovereign state within Ijaw territories,” according to Dango.

IYC members who supported Dokubo in the ostensible Biafra government were also suspended.

Based on the report of a six-man disciplinary committee established at the meeting, the IYC could still grant Dokubo a harsher punishment.

Comrade Ransom Opuiyo is the chairman of the committee.

Remember that Dokubo formed the IYC in 1998 as a human rights organisation to fight for Ijaw interests. Dokubo was the group’s leader from 2001 to 2004.

He left to found the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force, a militant group.