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| Edwin Clarke |
The meeting, presided over by Acting President Yemi
Osinbajo, was attended by the Ministers of Environment, Niger Delta Development
Affairs, State for Petroleum, and the chairman of NDDC, Sen. Ndoma Egba.
Also in attendance were Chief Edwin Clarke, Alabo Graham
Douglas, Chief Timi Alaibe, Chief Alfred Diette-Spiff, former Akwa Ibom Gov.
Victor Attah and a host of other Niger Delta leaders.
Elder statesman and leader of PANDEF, Clarke, who addressed
state House Correspondents at the end of the meeting, described it as very
fruitful and called on the people of the region to maintain peace and await the
implementation of the FG’s vision.
““The message is that everyone should maintain peace,” Clarke
said, adding that the group had seen the commitment of the federal government
to pursue its development agenda in the region.
“The meeting was excellent.
We met with Mr. Acting President and he was very honest, truthful,
forthright and we were very satisfied.”
Clark denied an ultimatum was issued to the federal
government on the vision’s implementation but added that the parties agreed on
many things with PANDEF and the ministers presenting their separate addresses
and Osinbajo rounding off.
“We saw his genuineness, truthfulness, forthrightness; he is
a gentleman and we support him and we are satisfied,” he said.
The PANDEF leader stated that the region would withdraw from
its former position and embrace the path laid by the federal government for the
development of the region.
According to him, the region and FG have agreed to work
together, noting that the issue of dialogue will also take place.
He assured the Niger Delta people that the 16-point agenda
they presented to the FG was fully discussed as well as the government’s
20-point agenda.
On why the Niger Delta leaders were not speaking with one
voice, the elder statesman said there were no other leaders in the region with
dissenting voices.
He said that MEND was represented at the meeting, noting
that the group’s acclaimed spokesman did not exist.
“Jomo Gbomo does not exist as a human being. That is a ghost
name and a fake name. MEND was here, all other organizations were here.
“I am the leader of the Niger Delta and every leader you can
think of from Cross River to Edo state was here,” he stated.
Buttressing the points, the minister of State for Petroleum,
Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, acknowledged that there was no ultimatum from any part of the
region to the federal government.
He said that the meeting was to find solutions to the Niger
Delta issues, adding that it was basically to explore how government had gone
ahead with the fulfillment of the parties’ undertakings on the 16-point agenda
raised during the tour of the region.
He said several issues, including the University at
Okerenkoko, issues related to the development of the Niger Delta generally,
amnesty programme and how well it was working, and NDDC operations were
discussed.
“Today was an environment of calm, peace and friendliness
and mutual dialogue of the issues for them to understand where we are coming
from and understand the most pressing problems that we have,” he said.
He acknowledged that PANDEF pledged commitment to work with
the federal government to find solutions to the problems confronting the
region.
He said that the alarm that was generated was that
government should hurry up with the projects as the people were getting worried
and tired and wanted to see positive actions on all the items.
He said that PANDEF was convinced with the explanations of the
Acting President and had realized that the government was not playing about the
vision to correct the wrongs in the region for over 30 years.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that as the meeting
was on the Acting Presidential Spokesman, Laolu Akande, released a fact sheet
on the vision showing that the FG had set aside an initial one billion dollars
for the clean-up and environmental remediation of Ogoniland.
According to the fact sheet, $200 million will be disbursed
yearly for the first five years and work on the project will be conducted in
line with international best practices.
Akande stated that already soil and water tests had been
done in preparation for the clean-up and 15 technical assistants from Ogoniland
hired to be part of the work.
He said that to drive infrastructure, the FG has released
funds for the continuation of various sections of the East-West Road, adding
that as at March 2017, the overall project completion was substantial with some
sections reaching 99 per cent completion.
Akande stated that the FG had plans to construct health
centres in the states and communities of the region, which on completion would
be fully equipped to address some of the health needs of rural dwellers.
He added that FG had started the process of replacing
illegal refineries in the region with modular ones, including options on how to
involve the communities as shareholders in the proposed Modular Refineries.
He said that the ground-breaking of the first set of such
refineries were expected in the 4th quarter of 2017 and the government would
supply crude to the local refineries at reasonable price.
Akande stated that the measure was to serve as an incentive
to stop the current practice whereby illegal refiners vandalised and stole the
crude, adding that each Niger Delta state was expected to host two modular
refineries.
~NAN
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