The Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide said on Friday it would pursue the establishment of a regional security outfit for the South-South geo-political zone in the new year.

The IYC President, Peter Timothy Igbifa, who stated this in his New Year address in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, said like the South- West, it had become imperative for the South-South to float its security outfit.

He stressed that the youths would mount pressure on the governors to undertake all executive and legislative processes required to make the security outfit a reality.

The IYC president said: “We are not alien to the reports of infiltrations of the Fulani herdsmen and other groups in our bushes and environment. The recurrent discovery of guns and live ammunition on the highways is a clear indication that we must be prepared at all times.

“The news of our women being raped and killed in bushes, farmers intimidated and maimed on a regular basis, and travelers robbed and killed is becoming unbearable. It is no longer news that most of our city’s vigilante members are Northerners holding machetes and safeguarding our own territories.

“This seems ridiculous as it reveals our highhandedness in trivializing possible attack on us all.

“We, therefore, call on all structures of the council, zonal chapters, and clans to set up mechanisms to check this unfortunate security threat in our region. I and my team are seriously considering the establishment of our own regional security outfit in line with the proposal made by the governors of our region.

“We shall push for this security outfit and impress it upon the governors to invoke a required legislative process to give it a legal backing.”

Igbifa said the IYC under his leadership would push for the relocation of the headquarters of multinational oil companies to the region in obedience to presidential directives; as well as the passage of the Petroleum Industrial Bill (PIB) into law; the practice of true federalism, stoppage of military invasion in Ijaw communities and issuance of indigenous licenses for modular refineries.