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Ijaw youths urged to shelve planned protest over NDDC board
By Mike Odiegwu, Port Harcourt
A former President, Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide, Udengs Eradiri, has urged Ijaw youths to shelve their plan to shut down Niger Delta, to compel President Muhammadu Buhari to inaugurate a substantive board for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
Eradiri, the Special Assistant on Youth Matters to the Interim Administrator, NDDC, Effiong Akwa, appealed to the youth to reconsider such move in view of the prevailing security situation in the country.
Eradiri, in a statement on Tuesday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, said the current security challenges did not favour protest by a large crowd because it could be infiltrated by hoodlums to shed the blood of innocent people.
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He said as a responsible organisation, IYC should not be seen as creating opportunities for hoodlums.
Eradiri asked the youth to support efforts by President Buhari, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio and Akwa to conclude the ongoing forensic audit designed to clean the rot in the NDDC and give the commission a new beginning.
He said Akpabio had explained several times that Buhari desired a conclusion of the audit before inaugurating the substantive board for the commission, adding that doing otherwise would jeopardise the investigation.
Acknowledging delay in the auditing process, Eradiri said it was initially caused by budgetary constraints, noting that Akpabio’s intervention led the Presidency to resolve the financial hiccups by taking over the funding of the audit.
