By Amos Okioma,
Yenagoa
Niger Delta leaders, on the platform of the Pan Niger Delta Peoples Congress (PNDPC) have disassociated themselves from the Edwin Clark-led Pan Niger Delta Peoples Forum (PANDEF), saying they are meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari to present a new template for lasting peace in the region.
The PNDPC, a new group, reportedly mandated by the coalition of Niger Delta agitators, youths and people of the region to speak with the Federal Government on behalf of the region, said the meeting with the Presidency would hold this month.
The new group was given the nod to be speaking on behalf of the region after the Chief Edwin Clark-led Pan Niger Delta Forum was sacked by the coalition of militants in the region.
At a meeting at the palace of Ibedaowei of Opokuma Kingdom, King Okpoitari Diongoli, in Opokuma, Bayelsa State, on Monday, the National Chairman, PNDPC, His Royal Majesty Charles Ayemi-Botu, said that the new body was put in place to fight for the people of the region through dialogue with the Presidency.
Ayemi-Botu, who is a former National Chairman of Traditional Rulers of Oil Minerals Producing Communities of Nigeria and paramount ruler of Seimbiri Kingdom, said that the group was to breathe in a new breath to the people.
The PNDPC boss stated: ”This is an all-encompassing Niger Delta people, who in consonance with our sons and daughters, agitating in the creeks, come together to see how we can provide a lasting solution to the age-long marginalisation and problems of the region.
”This body is independent of any other body. We have set up a strategic planning committee and after a month, we are now ready with our own vision and mission. We have just gone through it, circulated it among our members and in our subsequent meeting, we are going to adopt it and the world will know what we stand for.
”So, our being here is to show that we are a different set of people from the region that have the interest of the people of the region at heart. And we will in this October meet with the Presidency to discuss and come out with what we are going to do to better the lots of the people of the region.
”We know the problems of the region and we are going to present these problems to the Presidency. We want to make the Niger Delta region like ‘Dubai of Nigeria’ because nature in its infinite mercy has bestowed on us the ‘black gold’ which is the economic livewire of the country.
”Over 98 per cent of the gross domestic product is coming from oil; but because we have bad leadership, people who are self-centred, people who only feel to better themselves and leaving the rest to suffer, that is how we are where we are. But it is no longer going to be business as usual.”
He said that the group was not a partisan body, adding that in the group, they have traditional rulers, religious leaders, eminent persons, technocrats, among others.
He said that their intervention had brought about the relative peace enjoyed in the region currently as the agitators in the region sheathed their swords and allowed peace to reign.
Ayemi-Botu stated, ”You see last year when the agitators or freedom fighters went to the creeks and started destroying the economy. That added to the recession but when we came and asked for peace, they sheathed their swords and allowed peace to reign.
”The production that was up to 2.2 million barrels went down to 700,000 barrels, but as at August when we met them and they embraced peace and ceasefire, you can see that our economy has jerked up to 2 million barrels per day and the recession is gone.
”We pray that given the time and understanding of the Federal Government, the peaceful situation in the country and the upsurge in the production of oil in the country will continue and Nigeria and Niger Delta will not remain the same again.”
In his remarks, the National Coordinator of the new body, Chief Mike Loyibo, said that the body was not out to fight any group but to advance the peace, security and development of the region.
Loyibo stated: ”Our mission is to see how we can advance the fulcrum of the Niger Delta people.
”We are not a political party, we have activists, clergy men, opinion leaders and we came together when we realised that there was a problem about leadership.”
