Ijaw elders urge Buhari to confirm Brambaifa as NDDC boss, youths seek more funds for agency

Elders of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) and Ogbo leaders have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to ignore political jobbers seeking the removal of the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Prof. Nelson Brambaifa, and confirm his appointment without further delay.

Also, at a press conference after an exhaustive meeting of the Ogbo leaders in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, the elders condemned the recent looting and vandalisation of property at the Presidential Amnesty Programme warehouse at Kaiama community in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Council.

Chairman of the group, Mike Wenibowei, who stated that the incident was not only sad but portrayed Ijaw people with negative stigma, ascribed the incident to lack of security around the facility.

He commended Buhari for the appointment of Ijaw sons, Prof. Dokubo and Nelson Brambaifa as the Special Adviser on Presidential Amnesty Programme and Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) respectively.

Meanwhile, a coalition of youth groups, under the aegis of Concerned Citizens of Niger Delta (CCND), have urged the Federal Government to release the backlog of allocations owed the NDDC to enable the agency fulfill its core mandate of developing the Niger Delta.

Also, the youths are demanding for additional funds as the commission continues to grapple with new challenges of developing the youths so as to stem militancy in the region.

The President-General of the coalition, Michael Zika Uduefe, who spoke with journalists yesterday in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, said: “More funding has become necessary to enable the new board, led by Prof. Nelson Brambaifa, sustain the ongoing drive to douse tension in the region.”