The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide has waded into the employment scam rocking the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), calling for swift interventions.
This is coming after a seven-day ultimatum issued by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) to the Ministry of the Niger Delta and the management of the NDDC to offer deployment letters to some youths employed by the commission over 17 months ago.
In its statement, the MEND had said it would renew its hostilities against oil and gas installations in the region should the commission fail to do the needful.
Meanwhile, the spokesman for IYC, Ebilade Ekerefe, in a statement issued at Ijaw House in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, stated that it was worrisome to imagine that duly employed and documented youths of the region had been left stranded for over a year.
The group said, “If indeed duly qualified youths of the region were employed and documented by the NDDC since August 2019, it stands to reason for them to be promptly deployed to resume.
“As a group reputed for transparency and fairness, we cannot turn a blind eye to such display of oppression and inhumanity meted on our brothers and sisters who are stakeholders as well in the region.”
“In the meantime, we at the IYC have also received a rather disturbing news of the passing of some of the beneficiaries of the said 2019 employment due to depression occasioned by the long fruitless wait, having resigned from their former jobs following successful documentation with the NDDC.
“We therefore urge the Honorable Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio; Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Peter Nwaboshi; and Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on NDDC, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, to direct the swift release of the deployment letters to the affected staff to avoid brewing crisis and unrest in the region.
“More so, this as a youth empowerment scheme, was made possible only due to the sacrifices made by prominent Niger Delta freedom fighters like those of Major Jasper Isaac Adaka Boroh.”
