Tag: Niger Delta crisis

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday dispatched the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu to Warri,Delta State to meet with Niger Delta Stakeholders on how to resolve the fresh wave of militancy in the region.

At the meeting were Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, former Minister of Police Affairs, Alaowei Broderick Bozimo, former Delta state deputy governor, Professor Amos Utuama, Chef Christopher Obiuwevbi, Chief Favour Izuokumor, spokesman of the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC), Eric Omare and several traditional rulers, youths leaders and women from various ethnic groups in the region.

Kachikwu who had on Thrsday met with another group of  Ijaw leaders including traditional rulers said that President Buhari was determined to get the issues involved in the agitation in the Niger Delta resolved through dialogue  rather than the use of military force.

He thus charged the stakeholders to prevail on their youths to drop their arms, buy into the peaceful approach and stop robbing the region of potential development opportunities.

“The President has been very emphatic that the only solution to this problem is dialogue and he keeps  saying to me to tell the leaders to call their young boys to order,” he said.

“I have said it from day one that we must work for the final solution. My belief is that the final solution doesn’t lie in militancy. It requires a well articulated position of how to find solutions.

“If we do not have peace, we can’t address these issues and it is important that we organize those who can help us in the process and am extremely 100% committed to looking at these and the need to make amends.

“I’m committed to finding peace and opportunities in these areas but if most of these coastal states can’t be developed like what we see in Dubai, then we have failed because we have the resources and everything going for us.

“It is important that we work collectively and all those who have taken to militancy  must collapse all of that, come back to the table and let us speak with a voice and seek solutions.

“The Niger Delta needs more than ceasefire, what is needed is perpetual peace.”

Chief  Clark had earlier in the day  met with a delegation of the  Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) in Warri.

Both sides  agreed to work together.

He denounced Thursday’s  visit by some Ijaw traditional rulers to  Kachikwu  as a  selfish venture which had no blessing of true leaders of the Niger Delta.

Chief Clark,at yesterday’s parley, received the representative of MEND’s Aaron Team 2, Mr. Timipa Jenkins Okponipre, who bore a letter requesting collaboration with the Chief Clark-led regional stakeholders’ forum, which was assembled at a recent gathering in Warri.

Okponipre, who is also the Secretary of the Aaron’s Team 2,read out the terms on which MEND wished the new alliance to run.

According to him, the alliance will  be led by Chief Clark, with six other members, who would be persons of impeccable integrity.

He said:”MEND hereby restates that it shall work with and recognize Chief Edwin Ckark as the leader of a pan Niger Delta team to engage in dialogue with the federal government and multi- national oil companies upon the following terms and conditions:

*All the ongoing Niger Delta dialogue and peace initiatives in the region shall be carefully coordinated and warehoused under a single umbrella body to be known as the Niger Delta Peace and Development Group.

*Only the Niger Delta Peace and Development Group shall be recognized and competent to speak, negotiate and dialogue on behalf of the Niger Delta region by all stakeholders including the federal government, the international community, multinational oil companies etc.

*The group shall comprise six eminent Nigerians of impeccable character and integrity from the Niger Delta as defined by the Niger Delta Development Commission Act.

*That Chief Clark shall be the leader of the group. MEND, in support of the group, would nominate a Secretary that would work with Clark. MEND’s nominee shall be Timipa Jenkins Okponipre. MEND also nominates Messrs Ledum Mitee and Ibanga Isine to serve as members of the group.

*That one of the remaining two slots to be reserved for women and that upon these terms, MEND would disband the Odien Ajumogobia led Aaron Team 2″, the letter read.

Responding to the proposal from MEND, Chief Clark, said the regional body earlier put together by stakeholders from across the region would be willing to work with the Aaron’s Team 2, adding that the terms of the alliance, as suggested by MEND would be considered and reviewed by stakeholders.

“As I said earlier, when you have many children and some of them are working at cross purposes, the happier you would be if they decide to come together for a common objective of purpose.

“I have received your letter in the true spirit and have accepted you to be with us, we would work with you, we would recognise you and you would be part of us.

“The various terms you mentioned would be looked into. We are in democracy and I do not operate alone, we would deliberate on them and meet with you again”, he said.

Meanwhile, the Ijaw national leader, speaking to the leaders of the region from various places, in his house, emphasized the need for the entire region to stand together and pursue same goals for all the people.

He pledged that  the Ijaw would not betray other groups.

Chief Clark said he called yesterday’s emergency stakeholders’ meeting of the various groups to disabuse their minds about Thursday’s  visit to Dr Kachikwu, by some Ijaw chiefs who gave conditions to achieve peace in the region.

His words:”The purpose of this meeting is to tell you that I did not send them o, they went on their own. This is not an Ijaw matter, we must all stand together. Whenever we will go to Abuja, we shall go as a united region, all the groups of the Niger Delta would be represented.

“The purpose for this meeting is to assure you that this forum is still intact and solid and to let you know that Ijaw people are not treacherous, we stand where we agreed.”

An Ijaw chief and spokesman of Ogbe-ljoh/Warri Kingdom, Chief Favour Izoukumor, has urged the Federal Government to invest in the intelligence gathering in order to strengthen the nation’s security network.

He said this would enable Nigeria to overcome many of recurring security challenges in the land.

Izoukumor addressed reporters yesterday in Warri, Delta State, following the escalating insecurity in Niger Delta.

The Ijaw chief advised the military to respect the rights of law-abiding residents of the communities they were protecting in the course of their constitutional operations.

He noted that the deplorable state of physical development in the oil-rich region had created an avenue for all sorts of persons, mostly those he called criminals, to wreak havoc on the nation’s economic mainstay – the crude oil – and the region’s environment.

Izoukumor condemned the current insurgency in the region, urging those behind the various militant groups to stop their activities.

The Ijaw chief suggested immediate dialogue between the Federal Government and the region’s stakeholders, the immediate commencement of academic activities at the Maritime University at Okerenkoko, as part of the first steps to curb the activities of the insurgents.

On the need to restructure the nation’s intelligence agencies, Izoukumor said: “The Federal Government needs to work on intelligence gathering when it comes to investigations because I believe that before anything will happen, the people would have been talking. Like all those expressions of annoyance and such things. Those are information hints that neutral persons could have gathered …and make a genuine recommendation.

“The country cannot always be left to situations that will leave it to suddenly shock Nigerians and the international community. The reason this has continued to happen is because we do not have an effective intelligence gathering system; it is not effective enough. Now, we are just talking about what is happening in the Niger Delta. But we have a lot happening in other parts of Nigeria that will give serious concerns to genuine Nigerians.

“I am calling on the President to invest more on the agencies responsible for intelligence gathering. Once the intelligence gathered is accurate, you will always get the right information when looking for Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) or pipeline vandals. Then, you will be able to take the appropriate steps.

“While I condemn the activities of the NDA in the strongest term, I urge the Federal Government and the military to ensure that the military carries out whatever activities it is doing with caution and be professional in handling the already precarious situation in Niger Delta.

“While we concede that the Armed Forces are carrying out their constitutional duties, they must ensure that the rights and safety of traumatised inhabitants of the communities are paramount at all times. The reports of molestation, intimidation and maiming of innocent and law-abiding citizens of Gbaramatu while hunting militants are condemnable; they call for urgent and national attention.

“I take note of the fact that no serious government will tolerate the activities of these so-called Avengers, particular when critical national economic assets are being targeted. It is also the primary duty of the same government to protect the lives and property of the people.

“As the Niger Delta Avengers have failed to toe the line of negotiation, the Federal Government is expected, without delay, to begin to match words with actions by calling all stakeholders and regional leaders to a roundtable to dialogue on some pertinent issues as they affect Niger Delta residents. In war, there is no victor. In the end, we will all be losers.

“The use of the tool of dialogue with all stakeholders and agitators by the preceding administration spoke volume for the peace that has existed in Niger Delta in the last seven years.”

 

•Statesman condemns Niger Delta Avengers

Ijaw leader Chief Edwin Clark has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to follow the footsteps of his predecessors in handling the upsurge in militancy in Niger Delta.

Clark said the President needed to dialogue to resolve the crisis, instead of applying military might, since the nation’s military had been over-stretched in recent operations.

The Ijaw leader also advised members of the Niger Delta Avenger (NDA) to retrace their steps and embrace dialogue.

He noted that violence never served any good purpose.

Clark, who addressed reporters yesterday in Abuja on the rising militancy in Niger Delta, urged former militant leaders, like Tom Ateke and Boyloaf, to quell the crisis.

The Ijaw leader said the recent attacks on pipelines were not in the interest of the region and its residents.

He said it was economically wrong to destroy government infrastructure because they also have direct effects on the people and the environment.

Clark called for a meeting of Ijaw leaders from the six coastal states, including the executives of Ijaw National congress (INC) and Ijaw Youth Congress (IYC) Worldwide to discuss what he called the unpatriotic and dangerous upsurge in Niger Delta.

The elder statesman, who said the activities of the Avengers could be quickly resolved, if the President opened a channel of discussions, added: “At this point, I turn to the leaders of our governments, especially President Buhari, to emulate his predecessors and embrace dialogue on the current perplexing issues threatening the peace, possibly the existence, of our dear country.

“How many war theatres can our very limited number of military and security personnel be deployed at the same time? How effective can they be against Boko Haram, IPOB/MASSOB, Fulani herdsmen, kidnappers and, now, Niger Delta Avengers and their likes?

“Violence, even against violence, is not, has never been, the answer. Dialogue is! Let’s all embrace dialogue as the best and only means to achieve an equitable society in which everyone feels a sense of belonging and patriotic commitment.

“I repeat here, as always, that this country belongs to everyone. We have no other country than Nigeria. No one should be treated as first or as second-class citizen, causing some to take up arms to assert their rightful status.”

Clark distanced himself and other well-meaning Nigerians from Niger Delta Avengers’ phantom sovereign existence from Nigeria.

He said: “Nevertheless, it beats my imagination to hear that this so-called Niger Delta Avengers have the effrontery to say that they are designing a flag, a currency and a passport for display, in October, of a phantom sovereign existence from Nigeria. What nonsense!

“What has changed, when? All that they are complaining about have been the same for a long time. We have been discussing these issues, asking for redress, for as long as I have been in the public arena, up till today, including the six years of national leadership of one of our own.”

The Ijaw leader called for an immediate cessation of violence.

He added: “I call on this group, the Niger Delta Avengers, and all persons and groups, who feel aggrieved in the country, to shun violence and seek dialogue, no matter how petulant the perceived adversaries may be. I want to warn all the so-called militants, by whatever new names they want to assume, to energetically take up their own responsibilities, as enshrined in the Amnesty Agreement.

“The reintegrating militants were tasked to ensure that there would be no more destructive leakages. They were subsequently accommodated in the pipelines security schemes, though, to be fair, administered in a very haphazard manner, leading to many of the erstwhile militants feeling short-changed.”

Clark urged Ateke and other former militant leaders to “go into the creeks and meet with those threatening the peace and security of the Niger Delta with a view to bringing about peaceful resolution of whatever grievance they may have”.