Youths of Oko, an agrarian community in Oshimili south local government area of Delta state, have identified five significant projects provided by minority leader of the House of Representatives, Ndudi Elumelu for the community as his constituency projects.
The community youths led by Godspower Nwanozie as chairman and Rossi Afamefuna as taskforce chairman, Oko Amakom, made the announcement during a press briefing to throw light on the blockade of Oko road during the PDP Delta North campaign rally to the community on Wednesday.
The youths listed borehole, health centre, solar power, eight speed boats and town hall as some of the constituency projects executed by Ndudi Elumelu, who is minority leader of the House of Reps and representing Oshimili/Aniocha federal constituency at the National Assembly.
On Wednesday, reports went viral with videos on the social media depicting the youths of the community expressing anger over the neglect of the community road by the government of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Delta state. The youths were said to have blocked the road, thereby preventing the PDP campaign team from accessing the community.
The angry youths based their anger on the fact that every four years, the PDP leadership visit the community to solicit votes from the community but after voting the officials disappear to return in the next four years when it’s time for election.
Hence, to express their grievance and displeasure over the nonchalant attitude of the PDP government officials in Delta state, they blocked the road leading to the community as the PDP campaign train was set to enter the community for campaign.
However, reports that went viral on Wednesday revealed that Ndudi Elumelu was reportedly chased out of the community by angry youths of the area.
But in the press briefing on Friday, the youth chairman who led other youths to the Delta NUJ press centre, told journalists that the report was politically motivated as political opponents were out to pull down their supposed rivals.
According to him: “This is political era and everybody is trying all they can to pull down their opponents. The issue trending that Oko youths chased Elumelu and others that came for campaign is a big lie.
“All that the youths agitated for was peaceful deliberation with Ndudi Elumelu and others and to notify them about the bad state of Oko road and the electricity challenge.
“The Oko youths and elders were made to understand that the Oko road was awarded to a company which was unable to carry out their duty. And right now the governor has taken the project away from the contractor and awarded it to Setraco Nig Ltd.
“Right now the project has commenced and Setraco has moved in equipment. We are trying to make the road accessible to them.
“Again, the issue of Oko youths taken Elumelu to shrine to take oath is a capital lie. Nothing of such happened. I want the general public to know that Oko has outgrown the level of taken political aspirants to shrine to take oaths.
“These are government officials, not community members. We can only take people to shrine when there is community crisis and the people must be indigenes of the community. There is no way Oko youths will take Elumelu to shrine to take oaths.”
