The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has urged the federal government to take immediate action to address the devastating flood situation in some Niger Delta states, particularly Delta, Rivers, and Bayelsa State. It has also urged the government to look into crude oil theft and evaluate the quality of work being done on the East-West road, among other things.
The communique issued by PANDEF on Friday detailed the discussions held on Thursday, presided over by its national leader, Dr. Edwin Clark, where issues of vital concern to the Niger Delta region and the country, as well as the 2023 general elections and the level of insecurity in the nation, were discussed. It urged the federal government to address these issues as well as other pressing ones that face the populace.
PANDEF expressed concern over the level of destruction, where more than 600 people have so far have lost their lives in the ravaging floods, stressing that the disaster has also sacked millions from their homes and destroyed about 300,000 acres of farmland.
It empathized with other Nigerians, all over the country, who have lost loved ones and property due to the ravaging floods.
It called on President Muhammadu Buhari to visit Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers States, to access the level of damage and destruction, as is normally done, all over the world, calling on relevant agencies of the federal government as well as the international and indigenous oil companies, other corporate bodies and well-meaning individuals to come to the aid of states affected by the flood, in the Niger Delta, to ameliorate their suffering.
PANDEF called on the federal Ministry of Works, the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), NDDC, the military and other relevant agencies of the federal government to immediately initiate repair works on the collapsed portions of the East-West Road, which have resulted in the isolation of the entire Bayelsa State from the rest of the country.
The organisation also constituted a 12-man committee to coordinate its relief efforts for the flood victims and called on the Federal Government to urgently undertake comprehensive technical studies and plans with timelines for a solution to this question of flooding including building new Dams like Zungeru and Kashimbila, as was undertaken by former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
It joined all well-meaning Nigerians to express total shock over the recent startling revelations of massive and systematic oil theft.
The organisation commended the efforts of Chief Government Ekpemupolo, also called Tompolo and the youths of the Niger Delta, who by their diligence and patriotic zeal, recently uncovered the mind-boggling mechanisms of those pillaging our oil resources.
It urged the President as the substantive Minister of Petroleum, to urgently take steps to launch a full-scale investigation into this matter, including constituting a Judicial Panel of Inquiry to ascertain the perpetrators of this outrageous thievery, and urged the government to set up the mechanism for setting up modular refineries around the Niger Delta to bring an effective end to artisanal refining.
The socio-political organisation reiterates the stance of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum that the principle of zoning and power rotation between the North and the South remains sacrosanct, pointing bout that the next president of Nigeria should come from the south and calls on all patriotic Nigerians, eligible voters, irrespective of region and religion, who cherish the peace, unity and stability of the country, to vote for a southern candidate in the 2023 presidential election.
It promises to reveal its prefer presidential candidate in due course, even as it urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to sustain the recently recorded improvements in the nation’s electoral process and ensure that the 2023 elections are free, fair, credible, and reflect the will of the Nigerian electorates, expressed through the votes cast, in all polling units, across the country
PANDEF cautions the federal government against any ill-advised plan to terminate the Presidential Amnesty Programme given the rumours that the government is scheduling to wind up the programme before the end of the Buhari administration, warning that considerations that the Presidential Amnesty programme could be scrapped due to a pipeline surveillance contract awarded to a private firm, are not only illogical but unacceptable;
Notes that the Amnesty Programme was an intervention to promote peace and stability in the Niger Delta; thus, any attempt to prematurely end the programme would be detrimental to the peace and stability of the Niger Delta.
PANDEF noted that it received news of the sack of Mr. Effiong Okon Akwa, interim administrator of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) on Thursday and the subsequent appointment of Engr. Emmanuel Audu-Ohwavborua, from Delta State, to head the commission pending the appointment of a substantive management team and governing board.
It stated that Mr. Effiong Okon Akwa was the 3rd interim head of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in about three years; describes the situation as awful and hopes that the substantive management and governing board for the Commission will be constituted, in line with the NDDC Act, without further delay.
PANDEF condemns the insistence of the Federal Government to pursue its obnoxious Water Resources Bill and restates that it will be sternly resisted.
PANDEF noted the efforts of the National Assembly to amend certain Sections of the 1999 Constitution; urges that the process must be comprehensive in the direction of True Federalism.
The meeting, which was chaired by the Forum’s National Leader and Elder Statesman, Chief Dr Edwin K. Clark, and had in attendance members of the PANDEF Board of Trustees, the National Executive Committee (NEC) and State Executive Committees (SEC), as well as other critical stakeholders of the Niger Delta region, including Former Governors, Former Ministers, former members of the National Assembly, Traditional Rulers, former Ambassadors, Academics, Political and Business leaders, Civil Activists, Women and Youth Leaders.