FG Launches N50,000 Monthly Scheme For N’Delta Youths

The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, and the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, have appealed to Niger Delta youths to shelve the planned August 1 anti-government protest.

They said this during the flag-off of a Youth Internship Scheme organized  by the NDDC,for 10,000 youths of the Niger Delta region.

Akpabio, who spoke during the NDDC Executive Management Engagement with Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities and Selected Stakeholders in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, declared that the proposed nationwide protests by some youths would not take place in the nine states of the Niger Delta, describing the region as a protest-free zone.

Akpabio added that the 10, 000 youths would be engaged in the programme designed to improve their skills, noting that the beneficiaries in the first phase would be paid N50, 000 naira monthly.

Akpabio stated that President Bola  Tinubu was committed to the development of the Niger Delta region.

Akpabio said that despite the challenges of developing the Niger Delta region, the NDDC had executed several projects that had improved the lives of the people, promising that henceforth, the commission would be getting its full share of its statutory allocations.

Also, Chairman of the NDDC Governing Board, Mr. Chiedu Ebie, pledged that the commission would continue to focus on completing capital projects that would add value to the Niger Delta region.

The NDDC Managing Director, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, remarked that the people of the Niger Delta region had since transited from militant agitation to intellectual struggle, noting that the region was now reaping the benefits of the struggles.

He said: “We have given more opportunities and hope to Niger Delta youths through our Holistic Opportunity Projects of Engagement, meant to identify interests of the youths for skills training.”