A youth leader in Kantu community, Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State, Mr. George Agbasa, has raised an alarm over what he alleges as the suffocation of the community's youth body by the executive leadership, thereby rendering the youth arm as docile.

Agbasa, who said he was a former executive member of Kantu community and a concerned stakeholder, made the complaint in a protest note he released penultimate weekend and that was made available to PENGlobal Community.

According to Agbasa, while making reference to what obtains in a democracy, stated that, just as there are different arms of government so too the executive leadership of a community is a different arm of leadership from the youth executive.

He therefore wondered why one arm of leadership would be interfering in the affairs of the other, as well as dictating and performing the duties of the youth to itself, all in an attempt to lord it over the other, an act he referred to as “autocratic”.

Agbasa, in the protest note, further alleges that with the tenure of the youth executive coming to an end in April 2024, there are plots by the executive leadership to impose their choice candidate on the youth body in order to continue to foist control over the youth body as well as suffocate it.

He said, "The community youths have been oppressed and marginalised for so long. The community executive does not allow them to go to negotiation with company without their permission; they don't want the youth to operate as an independent leadership body.

"The youth exco tenure is coming to an end by April 2nd. But they, the community's executive leadership want to impose their loyalist on the community so that the youth will remain in darkness," he alleged.

Agbasa, who further revealed that the issue has lingered for long, called on stakeholders in the community, particularly the youths, to resist such attempts and that it is time for the community youths to break free and to be independent as it exists with other community youth bodies in the kingdom.

The youth leader also appealed to the various leaders in the kingdom to wade into the issue by calling the Kantu executive leadership to order and to avoid the situation escalating as most of the youths are being pushed to the wall and are silently getting fed up.

"I want to use this opportunity to inform the entire Gbaramatu Kingdom leaders to prevail on the community executive and the elders to allow the youths to elect who they desire, not who the community executive want to impose on them," he appealed.

Meanwhile, attempts by PENGlobal Community to reach the chairman of Kantu community for response on the allegations proved futile as calls made to his phone were unanswered as well as messages were not replied as at the time of filing this report.

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