'Why Ijaw leaders are backing Avengers'

An Ijaw leader from Gbaramatu in Warri Southwest Local Government of Delta State, Comrade Sheriff Mulade, has accused the state government of insincerity in handling the dialogue with the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) and other militant groups in the region.


Mulade, who is among delegates to dialogue with government, noted that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s perceived insincerity to the developmental needs of Delta communities was the cause of Ijaw leaders’ open and discreet support for NDA, the group behind bombings of oil and gas facilities in the region.

The kinsman of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) former leader, Chief Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo), spoke on phone with our reporter from the venue of yesterday’s stakeholders’ meeting convened by Okowa at the Governor’s Office Annex in Warri.

Mulade flayed the forum, saying: “He is not interested in developing the areas. The governor is merely seeking to justify security votes and empower those who helped him into power.

“They (militants) have sympathy from us. Why are we supporting them? It is because they are doing what most of us cannot do and bringing attention to our problem.

“We can only condemn them for destroying pipelines and other facilities as well as our environment. But they are enjoying support from Ijaw leaders because the governments, including Governor Okowa, have failed to develop our areas.”

Mulade accused Okowa of carrying out systematic development of his native Ndokwa parts of the state at the expense of the oil bearing communities.

The Ijaw leader said the major projects and policies of the Okowa administration had been tilted towards Delta North, where the governor hails from.

He said: “Now, the governor wants to meet with us. But when he inaugurated projects worth billions of naira to mark his one year anniversary, did he inaugurate anyone in the riverside communities? The projects he inaugurated in the upland areas, where did the money for their execution come from?

“If they don’t address these issues, more militants will emerge. In the days ahead, more intellectual militants are coming. We are angry more than the Avengers. It is because we are more concerned about our environment; that is why we are not doing anything.

“The governor is only bothered about oil money and his security vote, not about the people and the environment. Now that they (militants) are destroying flow lines, they (government officials) want to meet with us.

“But this meeting is a jamboree for politicians who are the same beneficiaries of the system. When they are fraternising with the militants on one hand, they want to end militancy on the other. Are they (militants) not the same people who they employed to become governors and get to where they are?”

On yesterday’s peace meeting, Mulade predicted that it would fail because it was aimed at empowering the governor’s loyalists and supporters.

He added: “If the governor wants to truly resolve the issues, he should involve critical leaders and not political stakeholders. He is merely doing a jamboree. The fundamental issues are clear: the people requests development; he is engaging the people.”

from Nigeria News. Your Nigerian Online News Source: Nigerianeye.com http://ift.tt/2954gbs
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