New Niger Delta group meets Osinbajo, says they were misrepresented

Few weeks after a first meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and leaders of the Niger Delta region under the aegis of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, a new group on Tuesday emerged with a new set of demands.

The Pan Niger Delta group led by Edwin Clark and King Alfred Diette-Spiff, had on November 1, ‎presented a 16-point demand which included a request for Niger Delta indigenes to also be allotted oil blocs‎ to grant them inclusive participation in oil industry‎, halt to militarization of the region, review of the amnesty Programme, proper
funding of the Niger Delta Development Commission, stopping gas flaring, returning of oil companies headquarters to the region in order to stop the denial of all the developmental and associated benefits that would have accrued to the region from their presence amongst others.

However, a different group known as the Niger Delta People’s Congress met with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday and presented fresh demands stating that they were misrepresented by the leaders at the meeting.
According to the 38member delegation, the first group had left out some important issues in presentation to President Buhari.

Issues of derivation was completely delisted from the list of demands, the restoration of 6000 jobs loss from the multinationals, the democratization of amnesty programme so as to capture some legitimate beneficiaries who were left out in the first exercise, among others, the group said.‎
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Speaking to newsmen at the Aso Rock, Abuja, after the closed door meeting, the coordinator of the group, Mike  Loyibo‎ and Head Media and Publicity for the group‎‎, Hendricks Opukeme said “‎After the first meeting there were a lot of distractions and other issues, we were misrepresented, the people said we came to ask for oil bloc for ourselves and they came with specific demands and we have come to inform the presidency this is the demand of the aggrieved people.‎
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“That is what we have come to inform the presidency and am very sure the aggrieved people were represented in this meeting and we don’t have any political affiliation to any other group, we have come genuinely concerned to solve this problem once and for all”.‎

Asked if their mission was different from that of Pan Niger Delta Forum,  Oloyebo, said, ‎”The mission is the same, we are trying to find peace whether we are talking about differences or not, we are all one people”.
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He described the meeting with the Vice President as very positive, adding that “we have a president that is very honest with governance and the issues that affect Nigerians and am very sure that what he told us that the issues are very legitimate and we should go back and try to get a roadmap for permanent peace and that is what we are doing.

“So there will be a lot of consultations and interactions after now, we are going to do a stakeholders summit in the Niger Delta in the next one month where every body will be invited to the table to hear what government want to do, so that if we continue to ask government to do things for us, without us stopping the bombing then it does not make sense”.‎
In his response Osinbajo, was said to have told the delegation to address the issue of continued vandalism in the region which he said is the most important thing.‎

According to a government source who preferred to be anonymous, ‎the Vice President told the delegation that the problems in the region have always been there and if the elite in all regions of the country decided to end the problems in their regions, the problems will be resolved.

Osinbajo it was gathered was also said to have told the delegation that independent producers who are Nigerians suffer the most from vandalism and not International Oil Companies (IOCs).

‎Excerpts from the presentation, signed by Congress Secretary, Professor Benjamin Okaba, Niger Delta Peoples Congress (NDPC), made available to newsmen stated: “This delegation is not only to re-affirm the plausible submissions made earlier but to also prioritize these concerns and place them in clearer perspectives. This is premised on our objective assessment of the anxieties, sentiments and myriads of reactions from the key drivers and players in the crises across and outside the region that immediately trailed the meetings.

“We are very confident that our modest contributions as articulated below would constitute the panacea to the age long crises in the Niger Delta Region.

“The fundamental concern is political reconstruction and fiscal federalism. We are persuaded to uphold that the nation practices true federalism with legitimate and acceptable division of power among the constituents (the center and regions) and the principle and practice of ownership and management of resources by the constituents. The derivation principal should allow the different unit annex and control its resources and pay appropriate and agreed tax to the centre.

“Demilitarization and peace/confidence building: we are persuaded to request the federal government to stop further invasion of the region under any guise; release unconditionally all freedom fighters from detention and deploy political solution to the issues surrounding the leadership of the agitators/freedom fighters; cause multinational co-operations not only to relocate their operational bases to the region but more significantly create a minimum of 6,000 jobs for the
teeming population of unemployed and restive youths of the region; cause the resumption of academic activities at the Nigerian Maritime University, Okerenkoko, Delta State and establish similar institutions in other parts of the region

“Funding Interventionist agencies: Cause the release of over N800 billion outstanding allocations yet to be paid to the NDDC; we request the building of more refineries (modular type), petrochemicals and  other petroleum related industries to add value to the crude oil and  gas produced from the region.

“Environmental and Human Right Protection: To drastically reduce the  current state of environmental degradation and threat to life  occasioned by the activities of the mult-national cooperation in the  region, we recommend that the federal government should: urgently  cause the appropriate agencies and co-operations to begin the  comprehensive remediation (clean up etc) of the Niger Delta  environment affected by oil spill; provide medical facilities and  attention to people suffering from ailments associated with oil and  gas activities; prompt the legislative process for the review of the  nation’s laws on Environmental impact and give stiffer penalties to  defaulters; cause the immediate implementation of all laws stopping  Gas flaring in the region; cause the establishment of Internally
Displaced Persons camps for the re-settlement of displaced persons at  Bakassi, Gbaramatu, etc.‎”