ODAHIEKWU OGUNDE, YENAGOA
Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta says it is not ready to stand down the seven-day notice it gave to the Ministry of the Niger Delta and the management of the Niger Delta Development Commission to offer deployment letters to some youths employed by the commission over 17 months ago.
MEND had on Tuesday issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, and the management of the NDDC to release the deployment letters to the affected staff or risk crisis in the region.
The group in a recent electronic statement on Friday by its spokesman, ‘General’ Gbomo Jommo, warned the management of the NDDC not to push the group to the wall over a recruitment process, which was long concluded and documented.
It said the seven-day notice to Akpabio and the management of the commission to do the needful had not changed and that failure to heed their warning would be visited with unprecedented hostilities in the region.
MEND said, “We are aware that the delay, despite several reassurances by the Sole Administrator, Effiong Akwa, is being orchestrated by a Director in the Human Resources Department of the commission for reasons known only to him. We shall therefore not hesitate to take actions to bring him up to speed.
“As a body that is opposed to oppression and intimidation of any sort, we shall not stand down until these affected youths of the region are handed their deployment letters by the NDDC.
“We say no to playing politics with the future of our brothers and sisters. We say no to politics over competence.”
The group reminded the management of the NDDC that it had the list of the authentic persons, saying that every change to that list would not be accepted.