By Ola Samuel
Godswill Akpabio, the Minister of Niger Delta has no respite yet from calls, to President Muhammadu Buhari by many Nigerians to sack him over alleged corruption in the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.
Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom state supervises the NDDC and has been fingered in the alleged multi-billion naira sleaze rocking the interventionist agency.
The minister has denied the allegation, notwithstanding he has faced trenchant criticisms from Nigerians who have called on the president to remove him from office.
The latest of such is the Urhobo Youth Assembly, UYA, a group in Delta state who has demanded his sack by President Muhammadu within seven days.
In a letter to the President dated August 7, 2020, signed by Jude Akpore and Frank Onogagamue, President and Secretary respectively, UYA said what is happening in the NDDC has embarrassed the minister and the federal government.
The Urhobo youths said “The entire leadership and members of the Urhobo Youth Assembly drawn from the 24 Kingdoms spread across the eight Urhobo speaking Local Government Councils of Delta Central and our Urhobo brothers in Warri South, Bomadi and Patani rose from a crucial emergency national meeting in Ughelli over the weekend.
The meeting was called principally to review the state of the nation via the high powered corruption that has bedevilled the regional interventionist agency, The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) under the supervision of Chief Godswill Obot Akpabio as minister.
With over 350 youth leaders in attendance, the National President of the UYA, Comrade Jude Akpore briefed the house of the imperatives of ensuring that the Urhobo people with their huge petro-dollar oil and gas resources are not relegated to the back seat when issues that concern the Niger Delta Development are being discussed both at the state and national level.
The Urhobo nation with over 21 flow stations and cumulative production capacity of over six hundred thousand bpd and host to the largest gas plant in Sub-Sahara Africa, the Otorogu gas plant cannot play second fiddle in the nation’s oil and gas politics and developmental stride.”
The youths threw their weight behind President Buhari’s quest to rid the Commission of corruption, because “Generally, the Urhobo Youths with over 700,000 votes have constantly supported your administration anti-corruption drive and we, therefore, cannot see reason why the current happenings at the NDDC where over N81billion have either be stolen or pocketed by some few individuals under the three members kangaroo Interim Management Committee (IMC) should be allowed to continued,” UYA said.
They urged the president to “within the next seven days sack the controversial Minister of Niger Delta Chief Godswill Obot Akpabio, and initiate a thorough process of arresting and prosecuting all those who have looted and diverted funds meant for the development of the oil and gas producing communities of the Niger Delta Region.”
