The National President of Southern Youth Foundation, Most Snr. Comrade Emeni Ibe, has called for massive protest against the Management of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, over alleged indebtedness.
Emeni, who is the BOT Chairman of Coalition of Niger Delta Youth Leaders and doubles as Director Union of Niger Delta Contractors, made the call in Port Harcourt during the stakeholders meeting of some concerned contractors and Niger Delta Youth Leaders.
At the meeting, the President General Orashi National Congress lamented over neglect of contractors by the NDDC Management and the continued delay in perfecting payments for jobs executed over a long period of time.
The stakeholders and Niger Delta Youth leaders decried the treatment meted on young Niger Deltans during and after execution of projects and unanimously passed a vote of no confidence on the NDDC Management. They used the opportunity afforded by the stakeholders meeting to strongly call on the President, Muhammadu Buhari, to constitute a new NDDC Board without delay.
Speaking with newsmen on Tuesday 4th October, 2022, the President of Southern Youth Foundation, Emeni Ibe, said, “It is rather sad to see the way the NDDC Management generally had been treating Niger Delta Youths. The relative peace being experienced in the region is partly as result of the resolve by the youths to do meaningful things with their lives. It is therefore, very discouraging that after executing various projects the Management of NDDC will prefer to pay their cronies and friends while neglecting the youths”.
“At the end of the stakeholders meeting, we unanimously passed a vote of no confidence on the management of NDDC over their disposition to the youths and the continued delay in perfecting payment for jobs executed by young Niger Deltans over a long period of time, which are long overdue. Will they prefer youth restiveness in the region? It’s rather absurd that the NDDC Management had been paying their cronies and friends to the tune of billions of Naira while neglecting the youths, whose monies are not even in the region of N100m. What do they expect the youths to do? Take up arms?”
“We’re strongly calling on Mr. President to compel the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs to as a matter of urgency pay the youths who had executed various projects and are yet to be paid with some even up to two to three years. We’re equally calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to constitute a new NDDC Board. It is long overdue!
We’re also calling on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC and the ICPC to investigate the Director and Assistant Director of Finance at the NDDC without delay. These people have finished our people totally, and we’ve had enough.”
“I therefore, call for alignment and realignment of all stakeholders in the Niger Delta to close ranks in order to achieve a total shutdown of NDDC. We shall occupy there until our demands are met” Comrade Emeni stated.
The BOT Chairman of Coalition of Niger Delta Youth leaders however, expressed willingness to coordinate every effort to make the planned protest a peaceful one.