Protesters storm NDDC headquarters over alleged looting

      

Protesters from the Niger Delta region stormed the headquarters  Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) on Monday to protest allegations of corruption in the commission.

The protesters who are mostly women and youths defied the rain to protest against allegations of corruption and financial malfeasance against the commission. Some of them bore placards with different inscriptions, arrived the commission’s headquarters located along Aba Road, Port Harcourt at 10 am and demanded that money allegedly stolen from the commission should be returned to the region.

    

One of the protesters,  was close to tears, lamented the poverty in the region, saying that people are suffering while a few takes what belongs to the region. She said that some children have dropped out of school because money meant to support education have been diverted by few persons.

She said: “We are hungry and our children cannot go to school because some persons have diverted the money meant for us.

‘’They use our money to send their children to expensive schools abroad; build mansions and drive expensive cars while we live in abject poverty. They must bring all the money meant for us.”

   

Some of the women who are farmers came with their farm produce said that their lands are no longer fertile because of pollution caused by oil exploration. The leader and organiser of the protest , Youth and Enviroment Advocacy Centre (YEAC), Fyneface Dumnamene called for the resignation of the Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio. He also called for the prosecution of persons indicted for looting the commission. He also called for the scrap of the Interim Management Committee of NDDC.