NDDC probe: Shun sponsored protest against Reps, group tells youths

Our Reporter

The Ondo South Youth Assembly (OSYA) has advised youth groups desirous of true development in the Niger Delta states to shun sponsored protests against a House of Representatives probe of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

It said it had already turned down a juicy offer to participate in staged protests against the Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo led House of Representatives Committee on the NDDC.

OSYA claimed that “some faceless youth groups” in the Niger Delta states had allegedly been financially induced to stage the protests.

The protest, it claimed, is also programmed to prevent Minister of Niger Delta Affairs Godswill Akpabio from appearing before the House of Representatives Committee on NDDC on Monday.

It said it was part of a grand media campaign to frustrate the ongoing probe into the alleged mismanagement and alleged unauthorised spending of N81.5 billion by the members of NDDC Interim Management Committee.

OSYA charged security agents not to allow such “unpatriotic protest”.

In a statement on Sunday signed by its spokesman, Abiodun Ogunduboye, the group dissociated itself from the protest.

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It said: “We, on behalf of the other responsible and hardworking youths of Ondo State hereby dissociate ourselves from the planned unpatriotic actions by certain promoters of this paid protest”.

According to the group, what the members of House of Representatives Committee on NDDC deserve for their resolve to unravel the matter is commendation rather than protest.

It added: “We stand stoutly against any attempt by the merchants of corruption to impugn, attack, malign or undermine the members of House of Representatives Committee on NDDC that are being targeted for their heroic deeds that are aimed at unravelling the evil actions of the locusts who are feeding fat on the collective resources of the oil producing states of Nigeria.

“We wholeheartedly endorse and support the probe and we urge all members of the House of Representatives Committee on NDDC to remain undaunted and steadfast in seeing the exercise to its logical conclusion with a view to ridding the commission of the actions of parasitic agents of graft”.