The Chairman of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, has urged militants to stop destroying oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta.
Ndoma-Egba spoke at the commission’s headquarters in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, when members of Cross River State University of Technology (CRUTECH) Alumni Association visited him.
The NDDC chiaman appealed to aggrieved persons in the region to call a truce.
He said: “We are in urgent need of development in the region and it is only in an atmosphere of peace that we can develop.”
Ndoma-Egba noted that poverty and restiveness could only be addressed when development was allowed to thrive.
He said: “We cannot develop in an environment of militancy.”
The NDDC chairman said President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration had increased the financial allocations to the development agencies in the region.
Ndoma-Egba said President Buhari had demonstrated goodwill in his administration’s steps to develop Niger Delta.
He said: “If you look at the 2016 budget, there is a marginal increase in everything concerning the region. Allocation to Niger Delta Ministry went up, the budget of the NDDC went up, and the budget of the Amnesty Programme went up.
“Now, something is being done with some urgency on the completion of the East-West Road. We have the Lagos-Calabar rail line and, recently, Vice President Yemi Osibanjo visited Delta State. He gave very firm assurances that the problems of the region would be addressed urgently.”
The NDDC chairman said the least Niger Delta residents could do was halt the breaches of oil and gas infrastructure.
He regretted that criminal activities, such as pipeline vandalism and oil theft, were detrimental to the interest of the region.
According to him, these are more like “shooting ourselves in the feet”.
Ndoma-Egba acknowledged the importance of education in changing the mind-set of youths, who he said were sometimes prone to restiveness.
He said: “The real resources of a nation are its youths. But the youths remain a resource only if they are educated and skilled to be empowered. If the youths are not educated, skilled and empowered, it becomes a challenge.”