Group Demands Lokpobiri’s Sack

The Niger Delta Change Front (NDCF) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sanitise his cabinet without further delay, specifically saying that the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri was unfit to continue as minister. ý
The group, therefore, called on Buhari, to sack the minister, who is from Bayelsa State.
The group, in a statement signed by its President, Engineer Worgu Wokedi, alleged that Lokpobiri has failed to live up to expectations as he merely fills a gap without contributing meaningfully to enhance the change agenda of Buhari.
“We are a group of professional youth across the oil-rich Niger Delta, who worked tirelessly for the Change Train of President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2015 presidential elections, and are equally eager to see the success of the Change Agenda.
“While we are not oblivious of the current challenges posed by the dwindling fortunes of our economy, we are quick to say that most of the problems are coming because some members of Buhari‘s cabinet are strangers to the Change Agenda of the Federal Government.
“One of such is the current Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, who has failed to live up to expectations and merely filing a ministerial gap.
“He has not demonstrated any efforts to assist the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government whether in the agricultural sector or in the Niger Delta region where Ijaw youth have wrecked havoc of our national economic assets.
“Ordinarily, as one of the leading Ijaw politicians, especially as the only Ijaw man in the cabinet, one expects that Lokpobiri would have interfaced with the militant groups across the region to reduce their onslaught on our ýoil and gas facilities. He lacks the capacity and reach to continue as minister. He is a liability rather than an asset to the government.
“We, therefore, call on our amiable president to drop Lokpobiri for a more broad-minded personality from Bayelsa State, someone with the required contacts across the Niger Delta region and possibly with a deep understanding of the region’s various stakeholders, particularly militant elements with capacity to tame them.
“Bayelsa State is blessed with such personalities as Comrade Tike Ogoriba, Chief Timi Alaibe, Chief Tiwei Oruminigha and a lot of others who can replace Lokpobiri and save the nation from further economic depletion”, it said.