Support Looters Of Treasury, Face Mass Action, Ondo Youths Tell Senators
A coalition of civil society organisations in Ondo State has threatened to mobilize mass action against the senators representing the three senatorial districts of the state if they support looters of the treasury against President Muhammadu Buhari.
Addressing a press conference after the maiden inauguration of “Occupy Senators’ on Monday in Akure, the state capital, the Convener and National Coordinator of Occupy Senators, Mr. Retson Tekedeh, warned them to refrain from any attempt to fight a President who has shown the desire to govern rather than play politics.
Tekedeh said, “With the monumental political corruption in the Senate, it is the ordinary Nigerian people that are suffering. Our senators are playing politics in Abuja while the President is working to fix Nigeria.
“No senator representing the people of Ondo State can decide to play with our future, support looters of our commonwealth and fight a President who has shown the desire to govern rather than play politics .
He lamented that the representatives of the state, especially in the Senate, were indifferent, callous and unconcerned about the yearnings of the people, pointing out that most of them do not have offices in their districts and constituencies.
Tekedeh accused them of undermining the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari to develop the nation, urging the leadership of the National Assembly to cease from becoming “a major clog in the wheel of progress.”
His words: “We have come to the point where confrontation is heavenly and cowardice is hellish. We fight political insensitivity, we will die; if we don’t fight political insensitivity, we will die. We will fight political insensitivity and die.
“We are calling on all sons and daughters of Ondo State to begin the battle to force the senators representing us to conform and comply with the President’s people-driven agenda or we will force them to do so with anger, vexation and frustration.”
The youth group also demanded that senators with high profile corruption charges in court should resign, the National Assembly should join Treasury Single Account (TSA), expedite actions on the anti-corruption bills and 2017 budget without playing politics with them.
“We are demanding that Ondo State senators request for the audited expenditure and budget breakdown of the Senate over the past five years. The Senate is accountable to the people and it is time they lead as the people dictate not as their pockets,” they said.
Also speaking, the representative of ECOWAS Youth Assembly, Mr. Ikumapayi Smith, described the group as the Citizens’ office for good governance that would force the representatives to be accountable to the electorates.
Ikumapayi noted that the group would also mark “the commencement of a national mass movement against bad governance, audacious political impunity and mindless looting exemplified by the leadership of the National Assembly.”
