By: Ifeme Chetachi
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has described as misleading and outright falsehood the allegation that the Rivers State Ministry of Youth Development is meddling into the affairs of the students union in the state.
NANS leader in Rivers State, Comrade Levi Sam Okuru who dismissed the false alarm raised by one of the factions of the Nigeria Union of Rivers State Students (NURSS) over the weekend in Port Harcourt, said the ministry decided to wade into the matter and reconcile the two factions based on several petitions received by the ministry from various groups.
Okuru regretted that the faction led by one Chimene instead of attending the meeting, rather chose to go on social media to allege that the ministry intended to dissolve his faction of the Students’ Union body.
According to him,” the ministry wanted to have a unified students’ Union body that will promote unity and peaceful co-existence among the students and move the students” body forward”.
He noted that the Ministry of Youth Development did not in any way suggest or attempt to dissolve NURSS as that is not within its purview rather, it is interested in restoring peace and unity to the body.
” The meeting was to give recommendations based on several petitions that they had received as a government ministry”, he said.
He appealed to the students to stay calm, while the ministry restores normalcy to the students’ union.
Meanwhile, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Youth Development, Dr. Roland Obed-Whyte said the ministry in order to carry out her primary responsibility of unifying the youths, summoned a meeting of the two factions with the sole intention of resolving the crises brewing among factions.
Whyte explained that the meeting was called based on petitions received by the ministry with the aim of ending the impasse in the student body.
He said he was surprised that one faction honoured the invitation while the other faction chose to go to the social media with misleading information that the ministry intended to dissolve them.
