Uche Amunike
The leadership of the Ijaw Youths Council, (IYC) worldwide, has mandated the Federal Government and the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, to make their words their bond by keeping to the deadline agreement that they reached with stakeholders on the Constitution of the substantive board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC).
Recall that during a stakeholders meeting between the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio and certain selected leaders from the region, the agreements reached by both parties was that the substantive Board of NDDC would be constituted before the end of June.
The IYC has released a press statement signed by its president, Peter Igbifa on Wednesday, stating that the youths will not accept anything short of constituting the Board before the end of June as was agreed on, during their meeting with the stakeholders.
Igbifa stated that anybody that suggested that the current arrangement in NDDC be extended to July ending was an enemy of the present administration.
He told president Muhammadu Buhari that any politician or member of his cabinet that gave suggestions that will go contrary to the agreement reached with the IYC simply desired to plunge the Niger-Delta which is the mainstay of the country’s economy into a crisis that should be best avoided.
He posited that the stakeholders who met and agreed on the current deadline should not be taken for granted because of greed.
On the ongoing forensic audit of the commission, he said it was no longer tenable to continue to use it to perpetrate the ongoing injustice in NDDC.
His words: ‘we are calling on president muhammadu buhari to honour the agreement between the Niger Delta stakeholders and the Federal Government on the constitution of the NDDC substantive Board before the end of this month. Any attempt to demand extension of the ongoing anomaly in NDDC will be resisted vehemently by our youths. It is expected that by now, the Federal government will have released the list of the Board nominees but up till now, nothing has happened and the time left is highly reduced. What is coming if this agreement is not honoured, is unimaginable. Our youths are ready to totally shut down the region this time around. No politician will be allowed to continue playing with the sensibilities of the people of the region’.
Recall that, Akpabio, while fielding questions from State House Correspondents at the Presidential Villa Abuja, Tuesday said that the final report of forensic audit of the NDDC will be ready and submitted to Buhari by the end of July 2021 for implementation.
Recall also, that in May, the Chairman of the Niger Delta Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives, Hon Apostle Essien Ayi, faulted the Federal Government for not inaugurating the Board of the NDDC.
Hear his exact words: ‘I don’t know what Akpabio, Minister of Niger Delta, is doing and refusing to inaugurate the Board of the Commission that has been screened by the National Assembly. Is it the Forensic audit? Nobody is against the audit and it cannot conflict with the work of a new Board. You cannot stop the inauguration of the Board because you want to do forensic audit. Are the new Board members part and parcel of what happened in the commission?’
