Mkpoikana Udoma 20 August 2017, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt – The Ijaw Youths Council, IYC, Worldwide has alleged Federal Government’s disinterest in the development of the Niger Delta region.
Spokesperson of the IYC, Mr. Henry Iyalla, in a statement, said that it is the desire of the council to see genuine economic, social, educational, physical and agricultural development in the region as a show of overdue promises made by the Federal Government concerning the region.
According to the statement, “The attention of the national executive council of the Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide has been drawn to a report in Punch Newspaper of the 17th of August, 2017 where it was reported that the Federal Government plans to spend $41billion on rail-lines from Lagos to Kano with only rail links or connections to the Niger Delta.
“We wonder where the Niger Delta from whose lands the wealth is gotten fits into this economic diversification of $41billion, since the goods being transmitted by the rail lines are produced in other regions and as such brings no economic gain to the Niger Delta region.
“We decry the show of disinterest in the development of the Niger Delta region despite the various calls on the Federal Government to put hand to ground in fulfilling all its media promises to the region”.
It called on “Ijaw sons and daughters to pull their might together in ensuring that the development of the Niger Delta region is not mere media propaganda by the Federal Government.”