AHEAD of today’s meeting of Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo
with leaders of Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, led by Chief Edwin Clark,
pan-Niger Delta civil
groups, yesterday, told PANDEF, that the meeting had been
overtaken by events, advising the group to, instead, declare a Republic of
Niger Delta and call for a referendum.
The groups, Niger Delta
Security Watch Organisation of Nigeria, NDSWON; Ijaw People’s Development
Initiative, IPDI; Foundation for Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Crusaders,
FOHURAC, and Ijaw Human Rights Monitors, IHRM, led by Dickson Bekederemo,
Austin Ozobo, Alaowei Cleric and Fred Brisibe, respectively, addressed newsmen
in Warri, Delta State. They said: “It is our clarion demand that PANDEF stop
any further dialogue with the government. We did not ask PANDEF to give Federal
Government a November 1 ultimatum to begin a dialogue process. Such ultimatum
appears to be a face-saving move invented by a people not respected by the
government of the day.”
MEND, PANDEF Also, Movement for the Emancipation of the
Niger Delta, MEND and the Reformed Egbesu Assembly, REF, have withdrawn their
mandate from the Chief Clark-led forum. MEND, in a statement by the
spokesperson, Jomo Gbomo, said the Clark and King Alfred Diete-Spiff group
lacked the moral justification to issue ultimatum to the Federal Government,
while the General Officer Commanding, REF, Tony Alagbakereowei, said the group
had lost its relevance in the scheme of things. Dissociating MEND from PANDEF,
Gbomo said: “In view of our irreconcilable differences, MEND hereby recalls its
representatives in PANDEF for consultation with immediate effect.”
Loyibo’s
reaction Similarly, former member of PANDEF, Chief Mike Loyibo, who now leads a
splinter group known as Niger Delta Peoples’ Congress, NDPC, said it was wrong
for any individual or group to blackmail the government under the guise of
working for the Niger Delta, considering the steps already undertaken by the
administration to transform the region. He told newsmen in Abuja, yesterday:
“It is highly selfish and unpatriotic for the Chief Clark-led PANDEF to give
the Federal Government an ultimatum considering the right steps taken so far by
the Federal Government towards a permanent solution to the age-long crisis that
had bedevilled the Niger Delta region, by constituting a high-powered committee
chaired by the Acting President, who has demonstrated passion and commitment
towards the region. “They have consulted widely and a roadmap has already been
fashioned out. The Federal Government should not allow any group to slow her
down, while it should take immediate action to tackle already identified
issues.” Referendum Meanwhile, the pan-Niger Delta civil groups added:
“We
expected the Chief Clark-led group to call for a referendum. This process will
open the floodgate for peaceful and bloodless separation. “We challenge the
Clark-led group to come together and be men enough to declare a Republic of
Niger Delta and call for a referendum for peaceful and bloodless separation.
“Our attention has been drawn to a statement from the Presidency inviting our
esteemed elders of PANDEF to a meeting/dialogue. We, the members of pan-Niger
Delta civil groups see the invitation as another calculated attempt to reduce
the age-long concerns of our people to control our God-given resources to
another talk show. “Events have overtaken our previous position for dialogue
and we are no longer interested in any Kangaroo dialogue.
We have waited too
long for the dialogue and now, recent events from the National Assembly have
made the proposed dialogue unnecessary. “This assertion flows from the recent
conduct of northern-dominated National Assembly, which vehemently rejected a
bill to restructure this structurally and economically-defective country. “In
the light of this, we wonder what PANDEF want to dialogue on. The leadership of
PANDEF should have known by now that this administration is treating the Niger
Delta and its leadership as ‘necessary evil’. “This is the reason why issues
that relate to the betterment of the region are treated shabbily and
jamboree-like. For instance, the benefit accruable to the oil-bearing
communities in PIB bill was thrown overboard by the northern-dominated NASS.
“It is on record that we, the members of the pan-Niger Delta civil groups
advised our elders to concentrate their energies on the twin issues of
restructuring and bridging the self-evident economic disparity and
underdevelopment of the region due to a structurally defective country. “They
went ahead instead and made a 16-point demand without consultation with
stakeholders. It is our opinion that all the items on the list can be taken
care of in a regionally restructured Nigeria. “This is the only panacea to the
many intractable problems confronting this contraption called Nigeria. “As it
stands now, the option opened to a serious minded group like PANDEF is to
anchor on the agitation for self-determination as guaranteed under Section 20
of Africa Charter, which permits a people, politically and economically
oppressed, to pursue peaceful dissolution on the grounds of seeking for
liberation from an overbearing economic, political intolerance and domination.
“For example, Article 19 of the African Charter frowns at and condemns the
domination of a people by another group, while Article 20 permits a people so
dominated to seek self- determination in order to freely determine their
political status and pursue their economic and social development according to
their own chosen policies.”
Vanguard reported that Militants’ Sept 31 threat Also, Niger Delta
Revolutionary Crusaders, NDRC, said, yesterday, that the November 1 ultimatum
by PANDEF, to pull out of further meetings with the Federal Government if it
was ready to dialogue with the regional group on its 16-point demand, was
unnecessary, as militants will not back out on their resolve to resume fresh
attacks on oil installations, September 31. NDRC, in a statement by its
spokesperson, W. O. I. Izon-Ebi, said: “PANDEF’s November 1 ultimatum is not
going to be, because we stand by our September 1 ultimatum and we know that
there is no September 31 in the calendar of the year. “But we simply mean that
there will be no October 1 Independence Day celebration without Nigeria feeling
an iota of our angst.
“The November 1 of PANDEF will not hold because September
31 will be that D-Day that even the PANDEF will realise how wicked the Nigerian
government is to the people of the Niger Delta because of our God -given
resources.
“The statement of PANDEF, led by Chief Clark, is not in conformity
with that of NDRC, the present reality of the 21st Century and the present
situation we find ourselves in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The oil would
be of no value to the world in the next 20 years.
“The world is sounding it
loud and clear that in the next 25 years, there will be less value for the oil
because all vehicles would be electrical and rechargeable like the one owned by
one of our senators, Senator Ben Murray Bruce.
“What will be left of the Niger
Delta would be devastation, pollution of our ecosystem, destruction of aquatic
life, flood and erosion all over the Niger Delta because of oil exploration and
exploitation.”
PANDEF lacks moral rightfor ultimatum—MEND On its part, MEND
said: “PANDEF, led by elder statesmen Chief Clark and His Royal Highness King
Alfred Diette-Spiff, lack the moral justification in giving an ultimatum to the
Federal Government and making demands they never made from Goodluck Jonathan
when he was at the helm for six wasted years.
“Instead of listening to the
so-called Niger Delta activists and the compromised Ijaw Youth Council, IYC,
who have miraculously regained the voices they lost when Jonathan was President
and instead of issuing threats through fake internet-based militant groups,
PANDEF ought to have used the forum and opportunity to commend the Federal
Government for exposing the monumental looting of our commonwealth by some sons
and daughters of the soil.
“PANDEF is also pretending not to notice that the
Amnesty Programme is still operating on the corrupt template that still pays
ghost militants after it hoodwinked the government into believing in the fraud.
“The programme has neglected the children of dead and imprisoned freedom
fighters, for those that never made any sacrifice to the cause.”
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