Niger Delta Youths Condemn Federal Government's Trial of Orubebe & Ors.

Orubebe

A Group, Niger Delta Youth Consultative Forum (NDYCF) has condemned the ongoing trial of former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) describing it as a witch-hunt.
In a statement yesterday by its President, Ebi-Akpo Debabode, the Group expressed support for President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade but alleged that only Ijaw people that served under former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration were being alleged to have stolen public fund.
Debabode expressed anger over what he termed “carefully orchestrated plans to vilify and decimate Niger Deltans that served under the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan.”
He said: “We don’t have any problem with Buhari as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That Jonathan lost election does not mean that those who worked with him have been conquered and must be decimated. We will not accept a situation where Niger Deltans and those who are believed to be Jonathan’s tribesmen are persecuted unnecessarily.
“The likes of the former petroleum minister, Mrs Dieziani Allison Madueke; former Director-General of Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Ziakede Patrick Akpobolokem; former Presidential Adviser on Amnesty, Hon Kingsley Kuku; IBTC Board Chairman, Atedo Peterside; former second-in-command to the immediate Customs boss, John Atte and now, Elder Orubebe are all Ijaw, who are being persecuted by this administration.
“Imagine the first female Petroleum Minister being vilified by a section of the press as if she has been convicted by the Court, whereas some people have been convicted in Rivers State but the government is just silent.”
He wondered why only the Ijaw are being persecuted even when more northerners served in Jonathan’s government.
He alleged that Orubebe would not get justice at the CCT saying he was being persecuted because of his role at the 2015 presidential election collation centre.
“If they are probing our brothers and sister for oil money they are alleged to have stolen, we are going to probe the pipelines in the Niger Delta and we can assure them that we are capable of doing so. They should not provoke us,” he warned.