Simon Utebor, Yenagoa
Again, Niger Delta youths have warned of imminent showdown with the Federal Government over delay in the formation of the substantive board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The youths, under the auspices of the 21st Century Youths of Niger Delta and Agitators with Conscience (21st CYNDAC), have threatened to shut down the activities of the NDDC by August 7, 2021, if the government failed to inaugurate a substantive board for the commission.
The disenchanted youths in a statement by the coordinator, 21st CYNDAC, Izon Ebi, after rising from an emergency meeting in the creeks, said the lethargy that had bedeviled the commission during this ‘one-man show administration’ could no longer be tolerated and condoned.
They said: “The 21st CYNDAC is sending a strong message to the relevant persons, authorities and agencies to swear in the new board as previously constituted, failure to do so, they will have no other alternative but to lock down the commission one week after 31st July till when a substantive board is inaugurated.
“The 21st CYNDAC feels it is time the government gave a political coloration to its promises to the Niger Delta region and its people concerning the forensic audit and the new board to end the incessant protests rocking the commission.
“With this statement, the 21st CYNDAC comprising youths from the nine states of the Niger Delta will occupy the commission’s headquarters after one week of submission of the forensic audit to President Muhammadu Buhari on the 31st of July, 2021 till the needful is done.
“This will be the mother of all protests as it will be devoid of ethnic coloration. We, therefore, on the relevant agencies of government and the National Assembly to save the nation the embarrassment of not doing the needful.”
The 21st CYNDAC called on President Buhari and the Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, to do the needful by inaugurating the screened and confirmed board of the NDDC without further delay latest by July 3, as promised, to save the National Assembly from further ridicule as an appendage of the Federal Government for illegality.