The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) called on the federal government to distance itself from any suggestion or advice by any group to either scrap the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) or merge it with any ministry.
IYC in a press statement issued in Port Harcourt at the weekend by its President, Deacon Peter Timothy Igbifa, said any attempt to merge NDDC with any ministry “will nail the fragile peace we currently enjoy in the region to the coffin of avoidable violent conflict.”
IYC, therefore, advised President Muhammadu Buhari to be wary of some of his aides entrusted with the collective interest of the region.
It also advised the president to inaugurate the board of the commission and constitute an independent probe into how the funds of the commission were spent in the past two years.