BY IDIBIA GABRIEL
Furious Niger Delta youths, under the aegis Unemployed Youths Association of Nigeria (UYAN), have threatened that they will take their protest to the streets of Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), Abuja if government fails to heed their calls for the removal of the Managing Director, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Mr. Sam Ogbuku.
The youths had last called for the swift removal of NDDC boss Mr. Sam Ogbuku, for alleged gross ‘negligence, and blatant disregard for the region’s welfare’.
Speaking to journalists after a town hall meeting with South-South representatives in Sabon Tasha area of Kaduna state, the National President of the group, Ebi Clifford Zuofa accused the NDDC boss of gross negligence.
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“Ogbuku has to go”, Zuofa said, condemning the NDDC’s failure to address Niger Delta’s crippling poverty, rampant corruption, and staggering under-development.
Mr. Zuofa, said that UYAN is concerned that since Ogbuku the NNDC boss has been in charge, Niger Delta has not experienced any form of development nor has the commission reduced the high rate of joblessness in the region.
UYAN also made shocking statistical revelations on Niger Deltans’ desperate plight.
The UYAN President who said his group was in Kaduna to gauge the pulse of Nigerians from the North noted that the North and South- South share certain peculiarities.
He noted that just like in the North, a major percentage of Nigeria’s poor people are in the Niger Delta region.
Comrade Zuofa also noted that the South-South region has the second-highest out-of-school children in the country after the North.
“Upon that, there is endemic corruption devouring resources in the Niger Delta region as can be seen in the NDDC.
“We are in the North today to meet unemployed youths from the region and to see what we can do to help further the cause of unemployed Nigerians.
“The youths in the South South of Nigeria which is also referred to as the Niger Delta region are suffering similar economic deprivation like what is being witnessed in the North”, Zuofa said.
Fielding questions from journalists, Secretary General of the group Dr. Aliu Femi, said: “We are warning of massive protests in Abuja, Port Harcourt and other parts of the country if the Federal Government does not remove Sam Ogbuku as the head of the NDDC.
“Even by the NDDC Act, the tenure of Ogbuku who is a Bayelsan has expired. Delta State is supposed to produce the next NDDC boss.”
He also daid that the group will soon link up with other groups in the North in order to ensure that the Federal Government does the right thing by providing conducive environment which would ensure employment opportunities for Nigerians
The National President, Ebi Zuofa, was accompany by Comrade Gbenga Fajoye of Delta State Coordinator, Amadoma God-help of Bayelsa State Coordinator, Osaruchi Rosamund Idumesaro of Rivers state Coordinator, Honesty Asemota of Edo state Coordinator, Akpakip Okon of Akwa Ibom state Coordinator, and Blessing Okosun of Cross Rivers state Coordinator respectively, in Kaduna.
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