Protest rocked Cross River State on Wednesday morning over the appointment of a member of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, board for the state by President Bola Tinubu.
Youths under the aegis of Cross River Youths Alliance stormed major streets in the city bearing placards with various inscriptions to reject the appointment of Asu Okang , a former Commissioner for Information in the state as a representative in the NDDC board.
The youths who assembled at Eleven -Eleven field along the Mortala Mohammed Highway marched to the All Progressives Congress, APC, secretariat while chanting songs to express their displeasure over the appointment of Okang whom they said is in “error”.
Addressing the youths in his office, the State Chairman of APC, Alphonsus Eba said the appointment will not stand because it would tantamount to grave injustice to oil producing areas of the state where the appointment should go to and called for calm.
‘We are moving to Abuja to let the President who had clearly been misled to make the appointment and when he sees the true and clear picture, he will reverse the appointment. We have a President who listens”He told the aggrieved youths.
From the APC secretariat, the youths moved to the NDDC office where they shut it saying it will remain shut until justice is done.
Addressing the protesters at the NDDC office gate, one of their leaders, Udeme Asuquo a former vice chairman of Bakassi Local Government Area said the NDDC Act of 2020 states that ” a representative of a state in the board of NDDC shall come from the oil producing area of such state and Okang is from Etung which is far removed from the oil producing area which is Bakassi in the southern district”.
He said the appointment is done to spite the people of the southern district particularly members of the APC who worked for the emergence of the party at the state and national levels.
“Okang refused to join APC when others did and during the election he was disparaging the personality of President Tinubu and our governor, Senator Bassey Otu and today he wants to benefit from those he was saying all sorts of things against. We the youths of Cross River say no to him”
Also speaking, another youth, Dunamis Archibong said the injustice perpetrated against the people of the state should stop and that the youths would carry on with the protest until justice is done.
“We are prepared to carry this protest to the National Assembly, Presidency and any where necessary to ensure that the injustice perpetrated against us is stopped and the appointment of Okang is reversed”.
He said the law on the appointment of a board for the NDDC must be obeyed by giving lol producing area of the state its due.
‘Our traditional father’s, our ancestors are not pleased with what is going on and therefore must stop. We worked hard, with some people losing their property during the election following attacks from opposition party members and today they are the ones enjoying the benefits of what we worked for”
Mr Okang told Vanguard on phone that he is from the state and qualified to occupy any office allocated to the state.
Source : Vanguard
