Ijaw youths from Niger Delta continued their attacks on the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency. This time, the youths faulted the setting up of a probe panel by the to review all employments and promotions under Goodluck Jonathan administration.
They condemned recent decision to probe only the tenure of the immediate past Director General of NIMASA, Mr Patrick Akpobolokemi as the Director-General of the agency was suspicious.
Ijaw youths from Niger Delta continued their attacks on the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency. This time, the youths faulted the setting up of a probe panel by the to review all employments and promotions under Goodluck Jonathan administration.
They condemned recent decision to probe only the tenure of the immediate past Director General of NIMASA, Mr Patrick Akpobolokemi as the Director-General of the agency was suspicious.
The youths, under the aegis of the Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide, in a statement by its spokesman, Mr. Eric Omare, said the suspicion of the Niger Delta people was that the motive of the probe is to sack or unjustly demote employees of NIMASA who are of Niger Delta origin.
The youths claimed on Sunday that the selective probe was a continuation of the victimisation of the people of the region by the government.
Omare said, “The attention of the Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide has been drawn to a statement issued by the Head of Public Relations of the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Mr. Lami Tumaka, to the effect that a committee has been set up to review all employments and promotions made in NIMASA from 2010 till date.
“The exercise, according to the statement, is aimed at ascertaining compliance with civil service rules and federal character. The period under review, it would interest the public, was the period Niger Delta born Patrick Akpobolokemi was the Director General of the agency.
“For the IYC, this is an obvious attempt and a continuation of the victimisation of Niger Deltans in the affairs of NIMASA. There is no single reason why the Federal Ministry of Transport would single out only one agency out of the several agencies in the ministry for review of employments and promotions.
“If the FMT is sincere and acting in good faith, why are agencies such as the Nigeria Port Authority, Nigeria Inland Waterways Authority and other agencies under the ministry left out of the purported review?
“Or could it be because these agencies were under the leadership of persons from the northern part of Nigeria? The obvious purpose this review exercise is meant to achieve is to sack or unjustly demote employees of NIMASA who are of Niger Delta origin.”
The spokesman said the IYC rejected in totality the latest attempt to victimise the people of Niger Delta by the Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari.
He claimed Buhari and his kinsmen had been doing everything possible to frustrate the take-off of the Maritime University, Okerenkoko, the continuation of the NIMASA Science and Technical College, Okoloba, and other NIMASA and federal government programmes beneficial to the Niger Delta people.
“We know as a matter of fact that the plan of the Buhari-led federal government is to take steps that would infuriate the Niger Delta people to act and then the government would use it as a reason to visit mayhem on the region,” Omare added.
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