By Ebi Kesiena
Ex-agitators from the nine states of the Niger Delta region have rejected a planned protest by a youth group under the platform of Niger Delta Youths Council, led by one Jato Abido over alleged exclusion of the oil-rich states in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, NNPC’s N621.2bn tax liabilities on road projects, insisting that it is being politically engineered by the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Niger Delta Youths Council had threatened to occupy the NNPC Towers in Abuja, as well of the National Assembly, if more states in the region are not included in the road rehabilitation plan.
Recall that the Works and Housing Minister, Babatunde Fashola had in October announced that the NNPC has identified 21 roads across the country that it wants to deploy some of its tax liabilities to. Approval was later granted by the Federal Executive Council for NNPC to carry on with this project.
Not pleased by the decision of Niger Delta Youths Council to stage a protest over the development, the ex-agitators following a meeting which took place in Warri Delta State, cautioned against any move to tarnish the image of the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mele Kyari and the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva.
Describing the planned protest as misplaced, outrageous, myopic, diminishing and a decision that could incite violence in the Federal Capital Territory and the Niger Delta states if not properly handled, the ex-agitators under the umbrellas of Niger Delta APC Youth Vanguard (NDAYV) the Niger Delta Advocate for Peace and Good Governance (NDAPGG) and the Coalition of Concerned Ex-Agitators for President Muhammadu Buhari Support Group (CCEPMB), in a joint statement, said they will not fold their hands and watch a group allegedly being sponsored by the PDP to cause tension in the zone and destroy the improved oil and gas sector of the nation’s economy being built by Kyari.
The Coalition of ex -militants Leaders and the Peace Advocate Groups led by the National Convener, Gen, Fiawei Pathfinder, Gen Koroye Adokeme, and Gen Jerry, beter known as King of The Boys, added that they will not accept such threats from non-existing groups to cause crisis in the region which has the tendency to impede the existing relative peace in the Niger Delta.
“However, we condemned in totality the purported threat suspected to be sponsored by some corrupt minded politicians in the opposition party PDP from the region who are trying every means to ferment trouble and to incite crisis in the region to give a bad light to the President Muhammadu Buhari led APC federal government.
“We call on such vicious groups to desist and retrace their footsteps from the proposed plan to protest and block the NNPC TOWER gate in Abuja . We believe the protest is sponsored and targeted to blackmail and rubbish the good image of the GMD NNPC Engr. Mele Kyari and calling for the resignation of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva in other to malign the duo in bad light before the general public and the presidency,” their statement read.
While noting that some states were captured in the NNPC’s tax liabilities construction plan, the ex-agitators expressed confidence that with the information available to them, more states from the South South will be included in the exercise.
