Youths drawn from the nine Niger Delta states have issued warning to ex-militants in the area over their call for the removal of the new Managing Director (MD) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Prof. Nelson Brambaifa, over allegations bordering on nepotism and fraud.
The ex-militants recently took to the streets in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, to demand the removal of the new NDDC MD, alleging “Brambaifa has diverted NDDC funds into private use with members of his family.”
But a coalition of the youth groups under the aegis of the Consolidated Youths of Niger Delta (CYND), who rose from their emergency meeting in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital on Thursday, described the ex-militants’ action as “borne out of evil intention”, explaining that “the new NDDC Board led by Prof. Brambaifa, is too young to be dragged into unnecessary blackmail”.
Speaking to newsmen at the end of the meeting, the National Coordinator of the coalition, Comrade Frank Naday, who described the action of the ex-agitators as “politically motivated”, advised them to follow the due process in their quest for personal welfare, instead of overheating the polity.
“This is the first time we are having an NDDC board that is led by a technocrat who has no political interest to use the NDDC’s platform as a spring board to attain such ambition.
“We want to advise our brothers to give the new board of the agency a chance to implement its policies and programmes in line with the core mandate of addressing the development challenges confronting the region.
“With the prevalence of security issues facing the nation from Borno, Adamawa, Zamfara, Katsina to Jos, it is quite unthinkable for our brothers to want to add the Niger Delta to the list of regions currently facing security problems in Nigeria”, Naday stressed.
The Brambaifa – led NDDC Board, according to the youths, has shown tremendous commitment towards fixing the problem of Niger Delta, adding “these laudable gestures can only be implemented under a very peaceful and secured environment”.
“Within these few months of the inauguration of the new NDDC Board, it is on record that grants and scholarships to local and foreign students have been cleared, road works and other infrastructural developments have resumed because most of these contractors who abandoned their sites have been settled their backlog of debts,” he added.
Comments