Ijaw Youths threaten to storm NASS over propose Bill to include Bauchi, Lagos, Ogun in NDDC Act

…..calls out Tompolo, Boyloaf, Ateke-Tom

Ijaw Youths from the Nine States of the Niger Delta region has threatened to storm the National Assembly to show their total support to Senators from the region for the outright rejection of the Bill for an Act to amend the NDDC Act sponsored by Senator Olamilekan Adeola (APC, Lagos West).

Ijaw Youths under the umbrella of the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) worldwide also called out the prominent ex-militant leaders, including High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, known as Tompolo, Dr. Ebikabowei Victor Ben, also known as Boyloaf, His Royal Majesty and the Amanyanabo of Okochiri Kingdom, King Ateke Tom and Chief Bibopere Ajube, also know as Shoot-at-sight not to be silent over the shameful treatment being meted on the region by those they referred to as Abuja based politicians under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The IYC, in a statement issued in Yenagoa by its National Spokesman, Comrade Ebilade Ekerefe, while commending the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege (APC, Delta Central) and other members of the National Assembly for their position on the Bill for an Act to amend the NDDC Act, noted that the youths back them on their vehement rejection, which they described as bold and commendable.

According to Ekerefe, “their total rejection showed that the National Assembly members from the region have further shown that 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 at the moment. 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 have become “a TOY” to be played with by politicians in Abuja and the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari”.

The IYC in the statement called on the Ex-Militant Generals, High Chief Government Ekpemukpolo also known as Tompolo, Dr. Ebikabowei Victor Ben also known as Boyloaf, His Royal Majesty and the Amanyanabo of Okochiri Kingdom, King Ateke Tom, Chief Bibopere Ajube, also known as Shoot-at-sight and many other freedom fighters from the region to rise up and speak out, insisting that 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.

• According to the IYC, “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 the 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 this myopic interlopers from the South-West region.”

The IYC will 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 Nation must remember that Late President Yardua 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 Peter Nwaoboshi (APC, Delta North) for further legislative action and report back at plenary in four weeks, the people of the Niger Delta have had it with the Nigerian nation.”

“The NDDC, was created in the year 2000 to address the age-longed environmental degradation caused by oil exploration in the region. This became necessary after years of agitation which led to deaths of lives in the struggle and destruction of homes in the region. These deaths and destruction have not even been ameliorated even as we speak.”

“The NDDC is a regional development commission. It must be made clear to the sponsor of the Bill that there is a difference between the NDDC and the oil and mineral producing commission. Even at that, is it not wise for the sponsor of the Bill to call for a South-West Development Commission to cater for the purported degradation noticed in the “baby” oil producing states from discovery of crude oil in Alkaleri LGA, Bauchi; Badagry, Lagos, and Ipokia, Ogun State”.

“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 this myopic interlopers from the South-West region.”

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