NDDC Board: We’re Ready For Mother Of All Protests – N’Delta Youths
3 min read
Edith CHUKU
The South South Youth Initiatives, SSYI, has assured the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, that they will not back down in their protest until their demand for the inauguration of a substantive board for the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, is met.
The youth group stated this while expressing their readiness to storm the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, again, in continuation of their peaceful demonstration.
The group reaffirmed that they will not be deterred until they have succeeded in compelling the President Muhammadu Buhari to respect the Act establishing the NDDC and constitute a new board.
The SSYI, while describing the upcoming demonstration as the mother of all protests, threatened that they will be protesting half naked, this time. They also noted that they will no longer carry out the demonstration which is believed to commence ending of this January, with one casket, but five caskets.
The group said Akpabio was not the only failed minister from the region. They alleged that Akpabio and the minister for petroleum, Timipre Sylva were competing for the worst minister, warning that soon the petroleum ministry will hear from them.
In this exclusive interview with TNN, the National President of the organisation, Imeabe Saviour Oscar said “we are preparing for a mother of all protest, we are working towards making sure that we have a mother of all protest and we are going to go half naked, we will go half naked, we are saying it, and we are going to say it again, we are going to go half naked for the people of Nigeria to know that we are no longer happy.
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“We have decided to go naked since the president have decided to use our son, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio, to kill us all in Niger Delta, we will go half naked and this time we are not going with one casket again to protest, we are going to protest with five caskets.
“One casket will represent the wife of Akpabio, the second casket will represent Akpabio, the other caskets will represent the children of Akpabio. We will bury Akpabio before Akpabio will bury the Niger Delta, we will bury Akpabio before Akpabio will bury all of us.”
Oscar threatened that “since Akpabio is not ready to make us succeed we are going to frustrate his effort of thinking that he can use us to become the next president. Of course he has no better plan for the people of the Niger Delta, he has no plan for Nigeria, so what we intend to do is to ensure that the minister for Niger Delta affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio should await our coming this month in Abuja, we are going to make sure that the people of Abuja feel our impact than we have ever done, we are going to do something different from what we have done before, that we are going to do.
“We are not going to back down, it’s unfortunate that we have a situation like this, we are also very much surprised though not disappointed but surprised because we envisaged this even from the beginning, all this is what we expected, we actually thought we had a listening president, we were thinking we have a president that is concerned about the governance of the people, well-being of our people, but unfortunately what we are seeing is a government that is so reluctant, who doesn’t care about the citizens, it’s quite unfortunate Nigeria is still backward, and is still going back, and is still enjoying going back, it’s unfortunate because as it stance now we don’t even know what will come out of it.
“The people of the Niger Delta have made so much request, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, has disappointed not just Nigerians but the people of Niger Delta, he has disappointed everybody, we expected him to listen to the call of the people, when people make agitation he will call the people and ask of their demands not the demands of some selfish individuals that you appointed, not the demand of some selfish cabinet members that do not represent the wishes of the people.”
