The Consolidated Youths of Niger Delta (CYN) has issued seven days ultimatum to the Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike to reopen the headquarters of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) located in in Port Harcourt.
The youths drawn from the nine states of the oil rich region asked the governor to unseal the commission’s office within the period of the ultimatum or face stiff and sustainable protests and unrests from them.
Recall that the Rivers State Internal Revenue Service in April sealed off the corporate headquarters of NDDC in Port Harcourt over an alleged unpaid withholding tax of about N50bn.
Coordinator of the group Comrade Frank Naday,while addressing newsmen in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom state ,maintained that the office was sealed about a week ago over non remittances of revenues by the government of Rivers state
He further described the closure of the commission’s office as political gimmick adding that NDDC is bigger than Rivers State because it covers the Niger Delta region and not Rivers alone.
The group also appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari, to intervene as the prevailing peace in the region maybe truncated. .
The Coordinator affirmed :“From our findings and the information made available to us, it is clear that the Commission has paid the backlogs of revenues it owes the Rivers State Government.
“We want to ask Rivers State Government to as a matter of urgency, unseal the Commission’s office complex to enable workers gain access to their various offices.
”We are aware that Rivers State Government is trying so hard to play Politics with the Commission because the system feels threatened that Prof Nelson Brambaifa-led administration at NDDC is doing tremendously well”
“In a couple of months that the new leaders assumed office, they have been able to pay contractors and return them back to sites, they have addressed the problem of water hyacinths too.
“It is also on record that the students studying abroad in various Universities in United Kingdom, have received their stipends and their schools have also been taken care of by the Commission.
“The rate of construction in Niger Delta region is really on the increase as almost all the states in the region are experiencing massive road construction”, he stressed.
The youths, worry that their efforts at addressing their plights through the Federal Government agency were being thwarted by the government of Rivers state,
