The Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide has warned of imminent uprising in the Niger Delta region over non-payment of the tuition and allowances of former militants.
The council viewed the development, especially those undergoing undergraduate and post-graduate degree programmes within and outside Nigeria, as a deliberate ploy by the Federal Government to create another round of insurgency in the region.
The IYC spokesperson, Mr. Eric Omare, in a statement on Thursday, said the non-payment of tuition and allowances since the inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari had subjected beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty Programme to untold hardship with the government showing no concern.
It said, “The IYC wishes to alert Nigerians and the international community that the rising tension in the Niger Delta region as a result of the non-payment of allowances to beneficiaries of the PAP would soon result in security breach in the region.
“We strongly believe that this is a deliberate ploy by some interest groups in the Presidency to frustrate the amnesty programme, create crisis in the Niger Delta region and use it as a justification to attack the region.
“The Federal Government has no single justification for not paying the accrued allowances because the amnesty office has sufficient funds in its account.
“For the umpteenth times, the IYC calls on opinion leaders, elders and the international community to prevail on President Buhari to fulfill the government’s obligation to the former agitators”.
The IYC, therefore, urged the Federal Government to pay the beneficiaries’ tuition and allowances without delay even as it advised the Muhammadu Buhari administration to ensure that the amnesty programme is followed to its logical conclusion by training all the beneficiaries, warning that “a stitch in time saves nine”.
This time we are warning all the multinational companies to stay clear from the nigerdelta terin,very soon we will take our operation no mercy action against the oil companies in niger delta.
“The Silent that President Buhari is giving the Niger Delta Ex Militants about their Non payments of their allowances and Students undergoing Undergraduate studies both in Nigeria and outside of Nigeria since the beginning of his Administration is getting to something else! This time, He doesn’t even come up with anything concerning about the programme and that’s not right in any of his excuses. If really he wants to probe the programme, He should go ahead and do that and continue the payment cuz, The delay is getting out of hand.
It is obvious that Gen. Buhari’s negligence over payment of stipends for scholars studying overseas is a deliberate enviable act to frustrate the significant objective of the Federal Government to develop the Niger Delta region. If he claims, he is embarking on endless kangaroo probity, what crime do the genuinely approved scholars by the Federal Government committed to deserve this suffering? Whereas these are students devoting themselves to study extensively for the development of Nigeria, and he is deliberately or indirectly frustrating them. Is frustrating the efforts of law abiding citizens with promising future a modern way of fighting or promoting corruption? “It is only a heartless human that will preferably begin leadership with crisis” instead of embracing a peaceful co-existence for the overall benefit of the citizenry. Hopefully, the Almighty God who overseas the affairs of the Niger Delta will never let us down. “…IN GOD WE TRUST…”