Former militant commanders under the aegis of National Coalition of Niger Delta Ex-Agitators have rejected the entire 16 point demands presented to President Muhammadu Buhari by leaders and representatives of the region led by elder statesman, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clarke.
On Tuesday, November 1, 2016, leaders of the region including governors, traditional rulers and elder statesmen, converged at the Presidential Villa where they presented the 16 demands of the region to the President behind closed doors.
The requests were presented by the Amanyanabo of Twon Brass in Bayelsa State, King Alfred Diete Spiff, on behalf of the leaders who visited the President under the aegis of Pan Niger Delta Forum.
Among other things, the Niger Delta leaders demanded the allocation of oil blocks and awards of contracts to indigenes of the region, review of the amnesty programme, de-militarisation of communities in the region and relocation of operational headquarters of oil companies to the region.
They also demanded the prompt take-off of the Maritime University, and proposed that contracts for the security surveillance and protection of oil and gas infrastructure should be handled by communities rather than individuals.
The representatives also called for increase in the restructuring and funding of the Niger Delta Development Commission and the strengthening of the Niger Delta Ministry.
The leaders also supported the call for fiscal federalism and urged the federal government to treat the matter with all the speed it demanded.
But after an enlarged meeting of members and leaders of the Ex-Agitators, President of the ex-militants, Israel Akpodoro, said the former militant warlords have reviewed the demands of the leaders and have blatantly condemned the points made before the president.
Niger-Delta-militants
The group said those who made the presentations were self appointed, pointing out that the demands had no regional representations but were motivated by selfish desires and for promotion of their selfish goals.
The group noted that it was unfortunate that the political system allowed for those he described as old war horses to represent a region blessed with productive and intelligent youth population who could design meaningful programmes for the well-being of the people of the Niger Delta.
According to the Coalition, those who went to the President were those who funded the activities of several militant groups in the region, especially the destructive Niger Delta Avengers, adding that their mode of operations is such that the elders form protective ring around perpetrators of violence in the region.
“They aid and abet the criminals and later asked the federal government to release them. We are appalled by the demands from Chief Clark and his co-travelers asking for the release of those criminal elements who blow up oil and gas facilities in the name of Avengers. We stand against such criminal demands because it casts aspersions on us as a people making us look like criminals”, Israel Akpodoro explained.
The group stated further that while regions in the country seek human development in the capacity building of the youth population and industrialisation of their regions, “the Chief E.K. Clark led group sought in his selfish 16 – points agenda to acquire oil wells to enable them amass wealth at the detriment of general good of the people of the region.”
Akpodoro queried the rationale behind the 16-point agenda handed to the President as he sought to know where, when and how the decision was reached without consultation with all ethnic components of the region before the presentation of the regional needs, stressing that what they presented to the president was anti people, fraudulent and with the intention to create poverty in the region.
NIGER DELTA ELDERS
Niger delta elders after the meeting with President Buhari
Pointedly, the group questioned the involvement of Chief Clark in the negotiation which he said was silent on employment, wealth creation, regional good but promotion of ego and self aggrandizement, noting that the issue of forcing the oil majors to locate their operational headquarters in the region was only to cause confusion and thereby holding the multinationals by the jugular.
He said “they want the oil majors to relocate their operational headquarters to the Niger Delta so that whenever they want to make their extraneous demands on the federal government they would threaten or direct their Avengers to blow off the operational base of the oil companies.
“Now, Chief Clark has obviously confirmed to Nigerians that the Avengers are the brainchild of the elders in the region who are mostly from Ijaw ethnic group. The federal government should not, under any guise, release the criminal elements because they are tools in the hands of the enemies of the Nigerian state.
“Clark should have been bordered more by the resuscitation of the Delta Steel Company Aladja, which has the capacity to remove over fifty thousand youths from the streets. A former Delta state governor was notorious in the purchase of property belonging to oil companies yet you want them to return.
“Where was Clark when the National Petroleum Development Company, NPDC was leaving Warri for Benin City? Who bought their property? These are groups of sycophants who want to be seen as representing public good but are actually fighting for themselves.
How can a man who told us some years ago that he was in the departure lounge of nature awaiting his exit from this world negotiate the future of our youths?”, he queried, adding that the FG must identify youths in the region to work with and make progress out of his government.
READ ALSO: Has peace finally returned to the Niger Delta?
He said such demand is unbecoming of a supposed elder statesman who should be more nationalistic but has shown that he and his people are financiers of criminal elements in the region.
He called on the federal government to identify youths from the region, assemble and work with them rather than the “romance” with those he described as self – seeking lots who know nothing other than how to shortchange the region and its people.
The future greatness of the Niger Delta region, Akpodoro said, lies on the shoulders of the youth and the earlier the President engage the youth in dialogue the better for the nation.
However, he noted that the federal government should stop the ongoing dialogue but his concern is that the negotiation should be more elaborate and some persons substituted from the group to accommodate the youths, even as he questioned why the same faces hold brief consistently for a region for over thirty years.
No comments :
Post a Comment