N/Delta youth issue 7-day ultimatum to Wike reopen NDDC office
By Isaac Job, Uyo
Angry youth drawn from the nine oil producing states have issued a seven-day ultimatum to Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state, to reopen the headquarters of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) or risk prolonged protest in the state.
A coalition of youth groups under the aegis of the Consolidated Youth of Niger Delta (CYN) led by its National Coordinator, Comrade Frank Naday, who addressed newsmen after their emergency meeting in Uyo yesterday, explained that the NDDC office was sealed a week ago by the Rivers state government over the non –remittance of taxes by the new management of the commission led by the Managing Director, Prof. Benson Brambaifa.
“From our findings and the information made available to us, it is clear that the commission has paid the backlogs of revenues it is owing the Rivers state government.
“We want to ask the Rivers state government to as a matter of urgency, unseal the commission’s office complex to enable workers gain access to their various offices.
“The Niger Delta Development Commission is bigger than Rivers state because it covers the Niger Delta region and not Rivers alone. We are aware that Rivers state government is trying so hard to play politics with the commission because the system feels threatened that Prof. Brambaifa-led administration at NDDC is doing tremendously well,” Comrade Naday stated.
The coalition of youth also expressed worry that efforts at addressing their plights through the NDDC as an interventionist agency were being thwarted by the government of Rivers state and appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari, to intervene as the prevailing peace in the region maybe truncated.
“In a couple of months that the new NDDC leaders assumed office, they have been able to pay contractors and return them back to site; they have addressed the problem of water hyacinths too.
“It is also on record that the students studying abroad in various universities in the United Kingdom have received their stipends and their schools have also been taken care of by the commission.
“The rate of construction in Niger Delta region is really on the increase as almost all the states in the region are experiencing massive road construction,” he stressed.
Naday disclosed that “the NDDC led by Prof. Brambaifa, has electrified a lot of communities in the Niger Delta region and has also given them water projects to enable them have good drinkable water.
“We condemn the actions of the Rivers state government in its entirety and we urge the state government to leave NDDC alone because shutting the office down, is doing more harm than good
“Imagine where thousands of youth that are employed by the various contractors are shut out because of the shutdown of the commission, it will lead them to various criminal activities in order to make ends meet.”
He therefore, enjoined President Buhari to confirm Prof. Brambraifa, as the substantive managing director of the NDDC, noting that “he is the first among his predecessors who is not using the agency as a spring board to aspire to any elective political office.”
