Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Angry youths from the nine States of the Niger Delta region have threatened to embark on a massive protest to shut down activities at the National Assembly and the various Nigerian High Commissions in the United States and the United Kingdom over the freezing of the accounts of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
According to the youths, the decision to move against the National Assembly and the Nation’s High Commission is to put a final stop to the deliberate act of wickedness against the region and prompt the international community’s to prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari to take decisive action on the inability of the NDDC to fund the payment of scholarships of hundreds of indigenes of the region studying abroad on the sponsorship of the commission.
Speaking to newsmen after a meeting with various youth groups involved in the planned protest in Abuja, Hon. Sunday Frank-Oputu noted that though they are saddened by the action of the National Assembly members to frustrate the NDDC and turn indigenes of the region studying abroad to beggars, the angry youths of the region have decided to take the battle to them in Abuja and chase them out until they unfreeze the account of the commission so as to meet up with its commitments.
According to him the youths have decided to give the National Assembly 48 hours to unfreeze all NDDC or face the wrath of Niger Delta youths.
“So we have resolved to give the National Assembly members 48 hrs to unfreeze all NDDC accounts. Two, we are also telling them that they should stop the unwarranted, unsolicited, oversight function they think they are doing to the detriment of the Niger Delta which we know is because of what wants to happen in this country. After the 48hrs, if they refused to unfreeze the NDDC account we are going to take over the national Assembly. Without fear of any contradiction, we are going to mobilize from all the states in the Niger delta and we are going to take over the National Assembly in a very peaceful but stubborn manner. It is to ensure that these National Assembly members, who feel without them no other person, will exist, to conform to the tenet of democracy” he said
Oputu lamented that COVID-19 has really had adverse effects on the people of the region adding that many families have been turned to beggars to pay school fees of their wards on NDDC scholarship in foreign countries.
He wondered why the leadership of the National Assembly that has declared that it is ready to support the policies of President Buhari would be the same people fighting to stop the forensic audit of the NDDC ordered by the same President.