The Movement for the Survival of Izon Ethnic Nationality (MOSIEND) in collaboration with other ethnic youth groups in the Niger Delta region, have called out the federal government over the current state of the East-West road, particularly the Ogoni axis of the highway in Rivers State.
The groups include the Rivers State Youth Leaders Assembly (RSYLA), the Ogoni Youth Federation (OYF), the Niger Delta Youth Leaders Coalition for Peace and Progress (NDYCPP), and the Ijaw Peace Movement (IPM).
Others were the Niger Delta Youths for Practical Development (NDYPD), the Ogoni People Assembly (OPA), the Association for Non Violence in the Niger Delta (ANVND) and the Rivers State Ethnic Youth Leaders Coalition (RSEYLC).
The groups, in a communique issued at the end of an emergency town hall meeting in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, called on the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Umana Okon Umana, to compel the construction companies handling the East-West Road to mobilise to site as the Ogoni axis of the road has become a death trap.
The communique reads in part, “That the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs should compel Setraco and RCC to immediately mobilize to site for the onward repairs of the entire stretch of the East-West road particularly the Ogoni axis that has turned to a death trap as it has made the region loose monumentally.
“That it was also agreed in the meeting that the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs and his counterpart in the Ministry of Works and Housing should liaise together and bring to fruition this lingering road network to alleviate the age-long sufferings of the people of the region.”
The groups also called for the immediate sack of the sole administrator of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Barrister Effiong Okon Akwa, and the scrapping of the office of Sole Administrator in the NDDC.
“That Mr. President should exhibit lawfulness and save the situation in the region and as a matter of urgency terminate the appointment of Barrister Effiong Okon Akwa and scrap the office of the Sole Administratorship.
“That the National Assembly should as a matter of expedience approve and authorize the release of all funds due the interventionist agencies like the NDDC.
“That the employment carried out under Senator Akpabio’s supervision be halted especially employment done within 2021 up on till recently, as the process was lopsided, inequitable and lacked due process. We want the Honourable Minister to revisit the process,” they added.
