A former President of Ijaw Youths Council, IYC, Worldwide, Udengs Eradiri, has advised youths from Ijaw nation to shelve their plans to shut down the Niger Delta region in the protest designed to compel President Muhammadu Buhari to inaugurate a substantive board for the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.
Eradiri, who is the Special Assistant on Youth Matters to the Interim Administrator, NDDC, Effiong Akwa, in a statement in Port Harcourt pleaded with the youths to reconsider such move considering the prevailing security situations in the country.
Eradiri noted that the current security situation was not good for protest by a large crowd, adding that hoodlums could infiltrate and shed the blood of innocent lives.
He advised that as a responsible organisation IYC should not be seen as creating opportunities for hoodlums and enjoined the youths to support the ongoing efforts by President Muhammadu Buhari, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio and Akwa to conclude the ongoing forensic audit designed to clean the rot in NDDC.
The former IYC leader said Akpabio had explained in many fora that Buhari desired a conclusion of the audit before inaugurating the substantive board for the commission adding that doing otherwise would jeopardise the ongoing investigations.
Eradiri, who acknowledged the delay in the auditing, explained that it was initially caused by budgetary constraints, but said Akpabio’s intervention led the Presidency to resolve the financial hiccups by taking over the funding of the audit.
He said: “The audit is recording tremendous progress. The auditors are now on field assignments after which they will write and submit their reports. It is instructive to note that the President desires an end to the audit before inaugurating a new board to give the NDDC a new and responsible beginning. Any attempt to put the board in place without concluding the ongoing investigations will derail the forensic audit.
“As a former IYC President, I also want the board to be inaugurated. But I have since observed that having a board has never been the problems of the NDDC. The commission has always had a board. But the problems over the years have been institutionalised corruption, failure of an accountable system and misappropriation of our commonwealth.