Former agitators in Cross River, one of the states of the Niger Delta, protested to the office of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in Calabar last week.
The protest which was jointly carried out by former agitators namely, Bakassi Strike Force (BSF), Bakassi Repentant Militants (BRM), Niger Delta Youth Movement (NDYM), National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), was to register their discontent with the quality of supervision and mode of distribution of the Agency’s annual rice palliative in the state’s Southern Senatorial District for 2021.
At the state capital office of the federal agency, the former agitators disclosed that they were not beneficiaries of the 2021 edition of the NDDC annual rice palliative programme distributed in their senatorial district. They stated that they were similarly exempted from the programme last year and threatened to violently resist their exclusion this time around if the issue is not promptly redressed. The protesters carried placards some of which read: “we need our rice”, “enough is enough”, “give us our rice or wait for us”, “no rice we pepper you”, “give us our right”, etc. However, heavy presence of security operatives helped in keeping things under control.
Addressing the agitators, a Director in the Commission, Mr Ene Okpo Ene-Ita expressed surprise that the groups were not included among the beneficiaries whereas the Guidelines made provision for youths of which they fall under. While he attributed their ommision by the supervisor in the region to oversight he allayed their fears by assuring them that the Commission shall make adjustments to accomodate them and redress the problem.
When contacted, the supervisor in the southern senatorial district, Chief Orok Otu Duke claimed that by the Guidelines made available to him, the rice was not exclusively for such groups but generality of youths, asserting that he had long done and completed the distribution in the south and had no rice left.
Recall that there have been widespread allegations against Duke that his distribution of the rice palliative in Cross River South was uneven and arbitrary. This may be the reason the programme was plaqued with controversy. According to a memo signed by Offiong Ephraim the Director for Youth and Sport at the NDDC, the rice palliative was to be benefited by youth, women and the disabled which turned out to be aborted.
Our investigations revealed that so as to assuage the protesting youths, the commission had to liase with the supervisor of central and northern senatorial districts, Hon Cletus Obun, from whose allocation a hundred bags were withdrawn and shared to the various groups.
