The youths of the Niger Delta region under the aegis of the 21st Century Youths of Niger Delta and Agitators with Conscience (21stCYNDAC) have threatened to embark on a peaceful protest should the Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari fail to give an explicit explanation on why a substantial board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has not been inaugurated yet.
The youths who said this in a communique issued after a meeting which held on Sunday gave the Federal Government a one-week ultimatum to answer their pertinent questions or risk protest movement in Abuja.
The youth also called on Buhari to immediately inaugurate the NDDC Board since the forensic audit had been concluded.
The youths joined the long list of individuals, groups, associations who have been consistent in their unceasing call to Buhari to inaugurate a substantive NDDC board.
The statement reads, “After an exhaustive meeting and deliberation held today (yesterday), the 21st CYNDAC, other like minds and youth organisations have resolved to ask some pertinent questions and if answers are not given after seven days, we will be forced to come down to Abuja in our numbers for a peaceful protest to ask who is benefiting from the continued running of NDDC by a sole administrator after the conclusion and submission of the forensic audit of the commission.
“Who is benefitting from the bribery allegations of Ghana -must-go bags of dollars and N5 billion alleged by militant group?
“In whose benefit is it that the substantive board is not inaugurated to consolidate on the gains of the forensic audit?
“These questions need urgent attention and answers because it is more of politics than the right intentions of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The president should endeavour to do the right thing as a legacy by inaugurating the substantive board of NDDC immediately because the streets of Niger Delta are bubbling with bogus allegations of using monies meant for developmental purposes for bribery and political brinkmanship.
“The forensic audit of NDDC which is more or less the brain child of Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, has been concluded, therefore, he should come out clean with his plans and why the substantive board of the commission has not been inaugurated after weeks of the submission of the forensic audit report to the Federal Government.
“The minister should also go a step further to clarify and uphold his integrity on the bogus allegations of bribery and corruption leveled against him from the start of the forensic audit to this moment because the allegations are too weighty to be ignored if the forensic audit should be taken seriously.
“We call on the minister to make the report of the forensic audit public and also publish funds that NDDC received from the FG and IOCs since his inception as the supervising minister of the interventionist agency.
“We, therefore, use this medium to advise President Buhari to restore a lasting peace in the Niger Delta by the immediate inauguration of the substantive board of NDDC.”
