Youths urge Jonathan to release N500b to NDDC

Independent

30 June 2011

Youths urge Jonathan to release N500b to NDDC

The Niger Delta Youth Coalition (NDYC), a  pro-democracy organisation in the country, has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to release the N500 billion  backlog of payments owed the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) by the Federal Government since 2006.

Speaking to newsmen in Port Harcourt the Rivers State capital, the National Coordinator of the NDYC , Prince Emmanuel Ogba, stated that the amount which was inherited from the Obasanjo regime  by late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s administration, was part of the counterpart fund being owned the commission.

Prince Ogba explained that through the state, local governments and the oil companies as part of the counterpart funding deal, they can only be encouraged to make regular contributions to the fund when the Federal Government as principal in the partnership was exemplary.

He pointed out that it was wrong for the late President Umaru Yar’Adua to refuse the payment of the N500 billion to the NDDC, declaring it as written off.