TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt

A member of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) and Head of Women, Youths, Sports and Culture in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) under the IMC, Mrs. Caroline Nagbo, has raised the alarm over threat to her life and relatives in Ogoni by unknown persons.

Mrs. Nagbo has also denied the allegation that she received huge sum of money and palliative to reach out to the youths of Niger Delta.

This was even as some notable Ogoni personalities have condemned the blackmail and threat to Nagbo’s live and family members, warning the individuals behind the sinister plots to desist forthwith.

In separate interviews, spokesman of Supreme Council of Ogoni Traditional Rulers and Gbenemene Bua Bangha II, King Suanu Baridam and foremost ex-agitator of Niger Delta, Solomon Ndigbara, the Mene Sira Bara Barrera I of Ogoniland, said the allegation against their daughter (Nagbo), was targeted at demeaning the Ogoni ethnic nationality and would not be tolerated.

Nagbo, in a telephone interview, said she had been away in the last two months in Abuja in the COVID-19 lockdown, noting that her functions have been carried out by the Special Adviser
(SA) on Youths without her knowledge.

The commission’s Head of Women, Youths, Sports and Culture in IMC wondered why she should be sidelined from her functions, blackmailed and her life threatened unjustly.

She said: “It is a blatant lie from the bit of hell that I received money for Niger Delta youths. Granted, I am the Head of Women, Youths, Sports and Culture in the NDDC under the IMC. I was never around. As I am talking to you, I have been two months away in Abuja in the lockdown.

“And these youths’ palliative that was given out by the acting Managing Director was done on the 7th of April (2020). From the information I gathered, the application for youths palliative was done and approved on the 7th of April. And the distribution of the palliative was on the 17th April by SA on Youths.

“I was never consulted by phone, or by text or by information. I was never in the meeting that decided the youths’ palliative, neither was I in the know”, Nagbo stated.

She continued: “Whoever sent the boy to go on air to talk that, is the person, who wants me dead in NDDC. The question is, who is the person that is not happy with my appointment? Who wants me assassinated unjustly in Rivers State and NDDC?

“That is the investigation security agencies are now investigating, because after that publication, so many threats have been sent to me and my relatives in the village concerning money I don’t know about.

“So, the question is, who masterminded this particular propaganda against me? And, who thinks that he can shelve hair in my absence?

“I know nothing about the youths’ palliative. I have already been sidelined. And it is in that sidelining that my function was given to the SA Youth. Why should my function be given to the SA Youth? And on top of it all, they still conspired to blackmail me before Rivers people in whom I have invested politically over the years? So, who wants to destroy my political capital in Rivers State?

The woman expressed surprises that she could be treated in such a manner, stressing that she has not had altercation with the IMC leadership.

Nagbo stated: “But, I just saw that when decision for financial transaction, or financial decision of the commission is being taken, I am not called for such meeting.

“I have not done any women’s programme in the commission. I have not done any youths’ programme in the commission. Nobody can show anywhere in the press, where I have been seen doing women or youths’ programme”, she maintained.

Meanwhile, when Sunday Sun contacted the Head of Corporate Affairs, NDDC, Mr. Charles Odili, for reaction on the allegation of sidelining Nagbo, he said the IMC would not be distracted.

Odili said: “The IMC is a coherent team. We will not be distracted by the activities of fifth columnist”.