April 24, 2012 | 1:38 pm
News BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME
PORT HARCOURT -

HUNDREDS of youths disrupted traffic on some streets in Port Harcourt Tuesday protesting what they viewed as a deliberate ploy by some politicians from a section of the country to destroy the reputation of the Minister of Petroleum, Mrs Diezani Alison Madueke.

The youths who carried placards with various inscriptions such as: “leave Diezani alone”, “why should activities in the NNPC be traced to 2009 yet they failed to mention name of the Minister of Petroleum then”, “is it because Diezani is from a minority area that is why the attack”, and so on.


National Mobilisation officer, South South Youth Leaders Forum, Prince Presley Iyalagha who spoke to newsmen during the protest said youths of the region would no longer fold their arms and watch with pain political appointees from the region being humiliated over nothing by some others from other sections of the country.


Continuing, he said the protest was against what he described as unfounded allegations by the Farouk Lawal Probe committee against the Minister of Petroleum. Adding, he said since Mrs Diezani came onboard as Minister of Petroleum it had been one form of orchestrated attack on her or the other. He said all were part of the grand design by a section of the country to rubbish any political office holder at the federal level.


“The latest victim of this tribalistic attack is Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, Minister for Petroleum, ever since she got in to office it has been one attack or the other, all coming from other parts of the country, the intent being to discredit her and give an impression that our people cannot manage public offices”, he said.


The group marched through streets in D line, Woji road and other parts of Port Harcourt.


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