by Achadu Gabriel, Kaduna

Furious Niger-Delta youths, under the guise of ‘Nigeria’s Unemployed Youths Association’ (UYAN), have threatened that they will take protest to the streets in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, if government failed to heed to their calls for the removal of Managing Director, Niger-Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr. Sam Ogbuku.

The furious youths had last called for the swift and unceremonious removal of NDDC boss, Mr. Sam Ogbuku, for alleged ‘gross incompetence, negligence, and blatant disregard’ for the region’s welfare.

Speaking to journalists in Kaduna State after a tense town hall meeting with South-South representatives in Sabon Tasha area of Kaduna State, the National President of UYAN, Ebi Clifford Zuofa, accused the NDDC boss of 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 under-development.

Mr. Zuofa said that UYAN is concerned that since Ogbuku assumed office as the NNDC boss, 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 revealing on Niger-Deltans’ desperate plight in that direction.

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.

Comrade Zuofa e noted that, just like in the North, 87 percent of Nigeria’s poor people are in the Niger-Delta. He added that, the South-South region has the second-highest out-of-school children in the country after the North. 

“Upon that, there is endemic corruption devouring resources of 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, Dr. Aliu Femi, said, “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 was accompanied by Comrade Gbenga Fajoye of Delta State Coordinator, Amadoma God-help of Bayelsa State Coordinator, Osaruchi Rosamund Idumesaro of Rivers State Coordinator, Honesty Asemota of Edo State Coordinator, Akpakip Okon of Akwa Ibom State Coordinator and Blessing Okosun of Cross Rivers State Coordinator, respectively, in Kaduna.

By MbNewss

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