Ijaw Youths Threaten National Assembly over Bill to Include Bauchi, Lagos, Others in NDDC Act

Olusegun Samuel

Ijaw youths in the Niger Delta region have threatened to shut down the National Assembly in show of solidarity and total support for senators from the region for their outright rejection of the bill to include Bauchi, Lagos, Ogunand other states in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Act

The controversial bill sponsored by Senator Olamilekan Adeola, representing Lagos West senatorial district, seeks to include Ogun, Kogi, Bauchi, Lagos and other states in the NDDC Act.

The Act to amend the NDDC Act sponsored by Adeola was vehemently rejected by senators from the Niger Delta region led by the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege; Mathew Urhoghide and George Sekibo, when it was brought on the floor of the Senate last week by Adeola.

In a statement issued yesterday, the Ijaw youths under the umbrella of the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) worldwide said the bill was provocative, subversive and another attempt by strange elements to share the resources of the region.

The statement signed by the National Spokesman of the group, Ebilade Ekerefe, also called on ex-militant leaders in the Niger Delta struggle, including Government Ekpemukpolo also known as Tompolo, Ebikabowei Victor Ben also known as Boyloaf, King Ateke Tom, High Chief Bibopere Ajube (aka Shoot-at-Sight) and many other freedom fighters from the region to rise up and speak against the systematic approach by the federal government to annihilate the region.

The IYC, while commending Omo-Agege (APC, Delta Central) and other members of the National Assembly for their position on the bill, noted that the youths would back them on their vehement rejection, which they described as bold and commendable.

Ekerefe said: “Their total rejection showed that in the National Assembly there are still men of honor from the Niger Delta region, unlike others who have continued to treat their region with disdain despite the transient positions they are holding.

“Secondly, the proposed bill for the inclusion of these strange bed fellows to the NDDC goes to confirm our repeated positions that the Niger Delta region has become a toy to be played with by politicians in Abuja and the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.”

The IYC, while calling on the freedom fighters from the region to rise up and speak out, said their continued silence is no longer golden on the various issues of neglect, lack of development and other contentious issues, including the non-setting up of the NDDC board, the mass purge of Niger Delta indigenes from the NNPC and the exclusion of major roads in the region from the planned NNPC road construction.

The youths said: “Your silence has made ‘interlopers’ to add insult upon injury and calling for the merging of what may later remain of the NDDC after it is merged with the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and taken to Abuja for the final burial.

“Niger Delta will now become empty and begging for carcass. The IYC will be calling on our various structures in Northern Nigeria to occupy the National Assembly to resist this obnoxious bill anytime it is brought back to the floor of the Senate for further debate by these myopic interlopers from the South-west region.”

The IYC said it would also put the security agencies on notice over their planned solidarity march to the National Assembly.

“We want to also put on notice the Nigerian security apparatus and the political leaders that the peace existing on paper to the present administration may have become compromised due to the continued insult on the leaders and people from the region.

“But we must let these politicians, and their anti-Niger Delta elements, know that the ‘toy’ is a dangerous one that will explode in their hands if they don’t stop the deliberate provocation of its people.

“Nigerian state must remember that Late President Musa Yar’adua and many others pleaded for peace from the people of the region before the wealth they are enjoying became available for them to plunder.

“With the speed, with which the bill quickly scaled the second reading on the floor of the National Assembly and the reference to the bill to the Senator Peter Nwaoboshi committee for further legislative action and report back at plenary in four weeks, the people of the Niger Delta have had it with the Nigerian state,” the group said.