As the 14-days ultimatum given to the Presidency and the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio elapses tomorrow, leadership of South South Youths Initiative, SSYI, has insisted on going ahead with it earlier planned protest.
The youth body had on August 11, given the Presidency and the minister a 14-day ultimatum to inaugurate a substantive board for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) as face protest from the youth.
National President of SSYI, Saviour Imeabe in a statement in Port Harcourt on Thursday maintained that the strike will hold despite threats from some quarters.
He alleged that the NDDC interim management has perfected plans to disrupt the protest with thugs.
The statement reads:
“ We wish to use this opportunity to state unequivocally that we are not relenting on our proposed plan to stage a protest against the federal government on its failure to constitute a substantive board for the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, as this has been a source of concern to the people of the oil rich Niger Delta.
The continuous delay in this regard to us means a total neglect to the outcry of the people of the region, who have often demanded that the commission give attention to the development of the region, which is its core mandate.
But, we are worried that while the youths of Niger Delta are making arrangements to hold the peaceful rally to drive down their demands, the leadership of the NDDC is sending us threats that the peaceful move would be thwarted.
We have gathered that the NDDC is already recruiting some thugs to disrupt the peaceful move of the youths of the region. This is barbaric and uncalled for. We want to remind them that our youths are resilient and fearless and no form of threat will stop us.
We must use this opportunity to inform the NDDC that we the youths of this region are not deterred by their antics to emasculate and shut us up. This protest must go on as we have planned it.
However, we are calling on the Federal Government, the Rivers State Government, the Director of DSS, the Inspector-General of Police to be aware that the NDDC is on the move to ignite crisis in the region. We have vowed that we will remain peaceful in our demands, but we will not want to be pushed to the wall.
We also call on youths of the region to come out en masse for this move to restore legitimacy in the NDDC. We further encourage the over 2000 youths that will be taking part in this protest to conduct yourselves peacefully”.
