Alleges gross incompetence, negligence, blatant disregard for region’s welfare
Warns of massive street protest in Abuja
By our correspondent
In a scathing indictment, furious Niger Delta youths, under the guise of Nigeria’s Unemployed Youths Association (UYAN), has called for the swift and unceremonious removal of Managing Director, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Mr. Sam Ogbuku.
Speaking to journalists in Kaduna State, after a tense town hall meeting with South-South representatives in Sabon Tasha Kaduna, the National President of UYAN, Ebi Clifford Zuofa lambasted the NDDC boss for gross incompetence, negligence, and blatant disregard for the region’s welfare.
“Ogbuku must go”!, Zuofa said, condemning the NDDC’s catastrophic failure to address Niger Delta’s crippling poverty, rampant corruption, and staggering underdevelopment.
Mr. Zuofa, said that UYAN is concerned that since Ogbuku the NNDC boss was appointed, Niger Delta have not experienced any form of development nor has the commission reduced the high rate of joblessness in the region
UYAN also made a shocking statistical revealation on Niger Deltans desperate plight in that directions.
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, 87 percent of Nigeria’s poor people are in the Niger Niger Delta
Comrade Zuofa also noted that the South-South region has the second-highest out-of-school children in the country after the North
“Up on that, there is endemic corruption devouring resources 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 is suffering similar economic deprivation like what is being witnessed in the North, Zuofa”, he said.
Fielding questions from journalists, Secretary General of the group and also the Coordinator of the South- South region, Comrade Peter Ochuko stated that: “We are warning of massive protest 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 warned 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 accompanied by Comrade Gbenga Fajoye, Delta State Coordinator, Amadoma God-help Bayelsa State Coordinator, Osaruchi Rosamund Idumesaro. Rivers state Coordinator, Honesty Asemota, Edo state Coordinator,
Akpakip Okon, Akwa Ibom state Coordinator, and Blessing Okosun, Cross Rivers state Coordinator respectively, in Kaduna.
