Buhari must head negotiation team to end crises in Niger Delta

A group known as the United Niger Delta Energy Development Security Strategy, UNDEDSS, has given out suggestions that will help bring to an end the rampaging crises in the Niger Delta region.


UNDEDSS maintained that for the lingering crises in the oil producing region to be brought to a halt, President Muhammadu Buhari must personally chair the dialogue team and also appoint credible Special Adviser from the region.

The group in a statement by its Secretary General, Tony Iprinye Uranta urged the Buhari-led Federal Government to adopt the holistic 2009 Amnesty Dynamics former President, Umar Yaradua deployed in putting an end to the agitation in the region.

According to the group, the Federal Government should re-establish the Niger Delta Committee/Council that operated five sub-Committees with the aim of addressing arms agitation in the region.

The statement reads, “UNDEDSS and other leading stakeholders in the region have tirelessly interfaced with very senior members of this Administration and given them a detailed template the President should deploy now to resolve this growing insecurity in the region, which is negatively impacting all of Nigeria.

“In the light of of the conflicting statements being made by too many putative representatives of both the region and the Federal Government, it is necessary, however, to state that the Niger Delta is not going to know sustainable peace via the coterie of so-called Contact Groups or Committees! And, that there cannot be any reliable dialogue, between the FGN and the region, without a commitment to Justice and Equity by President Buhari himself.

UNDEDSS also stressed that the Federal Government should also adopt the 2008 Niger Delta Technical Committee’s Report.


The statement further advised the Federal Government that in a bid to reassure the people of Niger Delta of its sincere commitment to Justice and Equity, it should effect the “release of ten secondary school children and others detained as prisoners-of-war for many weeks since the military’s invasion of Gbaramatu Kingdom.

“The return of Symbols of Gbaramatu traditional worship; and, most importantly, President Buhari addressing the nation to announce that he would personally lead the revival of the 2009 template premised on a Niger Delta Development Committee under his direct supervision, plus grant free passage to all stakeholders he is ready to directly dialogue with.”