The National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) has once again called for the suspension of the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio and the dissolution of the Interim Management Committee of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) over allegations of corruption and mismanagement of funds against in the NDDC.

Recall that the NDDC and the embattled minister have been in the eye of the storm over the myriads of corruption allegations hovering around the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC which promoted the NYCN, last Sunday, to call for the removal of the Minister to allow for a thorough probe into his activities and the corruption scandal rocking the NDDC.

NYCN in a statement by its Deputy President, Comrade Adamu Kabir Matazu, on Monday, faulted the list of alleged beneficiaries of NDDC projects in the National Assembly, saying “the person who has benefitted from NDDC contracts while in the Senate is no other than the present Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio.”

Matazu claimed that “It's on record that on the 7th of August, 2017, Senator Akpabio while in the Senate wrote to the Chairman Senate Committee on Niger Delta requesting for contracts to be given to him from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and to be sited in his constituency. Unfortunately Senator Akpabio failed to execute those contracts.”

The NYCN which has always been at the forefront calling for attention to all the allegations of sleaze and malfeasance perpetrated in the NDDC and thorough investigation, said it is pained to see that Akpabio is “trying to deflect and change the narrative with a view to evading accountability thereby subverting the course of Justice in respect of the latest N81 billion scandal rocking the NDDC.”

The NYCN statement further read:

“It's sad to see that the NDDC under the supervision of the Niger Delta Ministry has become a cesspool of corruption and the man at the center of these corrupt practices is Senator Godswill Akpabio who has brought misery and penury to the people of the Niger Delta region.

“The NYCN wishes to reiterate it's call to President Muhammadu Buhari to sack Akpabio and dissolve the Interim Management Committee with a view to ensuring the speedy completion of the probe initiated by the National Assembly without let or hindrance because from our findings, we discovered that the reason Akpabio is attacking the members of the National Assembly Committee on NDDC is simply because he couldn't compromise them and they are determined to expose the corruption perpetrated by NDDC under his supervision in line with the vision of President Buhari's Zero tolerance for corruption.

“The National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), hereby, calls on the House Committee on NDDC to stay focused and complete it's assignment without fear or favour, and not to be distracted by the noise of those who are vehemently opposed to accountability.

“Finally, we call on President Muhammadu Buhari to take seriously the allegations against Senator Akpabio and the Interim Management Committee of the NDDC and order their suspension in the same manner Ibrahim Magu and Justice Walter Onnoghen were suspended. Failure to heed to our call will lead to a massive protest by our organization.”