By Akinwale Kasali
By Saturday June 5, 2021, the Seven-Days Ultimatum given to the President Muhammadu Buhari administration and the Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Obot Akpabio for the reconstitution of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, board will elapse.
Former Niger Delta Militant and Warlord, Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, had urged the Federal Government to reconstitute the NDDC board within seven-days, or the safety of Oil workers in the Region will not be guaranteed.
Tompolo and many others are agitating against the appointment of a Sole Administrator to run the affairs of the Commission instead of a Board.
A move made to Tompolo made by Akpabio on a trip to the Niger Delta region to appeal to Tompolo and stakeholders to soft-pedal on the agitations for a Board went awry.
The trip to Oporoza, Headquarters of Gbaramstu Kingdom, was unsuccessful.
It would be recalled that Tompolo called on President Buhari, members of the National Assembly and Security Agencies to work towards the constitution of the substantive board of the NDDC within a seven days to avert a total breakdown of law and order that will equally affect crude oil exploration and exploitation activities in the region, prompting the visit of Akpabio to persuade Tompolo to withdraw his seven-day ultimatum and also meet critical Delta State ethnic nationalities stakeholders who were also hurriedly invited for the meeting.
However, the Minister’s overture reportedly received a cold response from Tompolo and other stakeholders in the region who tongue-lashed him instead.
It was gathered that at the Palace of paramount ruler of Gbaramatu, where a meeting was held, Akpabio was said to have been tongue lashed, and insulted following a heated argument, as he attempted to stage a walkout at a stage.
The Stakeholders said that Akpabio was running the NDDC as his own private enterprise, taking decisions unilaterally without consultations.
At the meeting at the Palace of Paramount Ruler of Gbaramatu, Tompolo was reported to have snubbed the meeting with Akpabio, but sent a message to him, asking him to go back to Abuja and inaugurate the NDDC board without further delay.
Ifeanyi Okowa, Governor of Delta State who was represented by his Deputy, Kingsley Otuaro, stated the position of Delta State Government.
He stressed that the right thing should be done regarding the NDDC Board in accordance with the Act that established the commission.
President of Isoko National Youth Assembly, INYA, Amos Ogbokor-Etaluku, Ijaw National Congress, INC, Prof Benjamin Okaba separately expressed dismay that Akpabio was running NDDC with a sole administrator in contravention of the Act that established the commission.
Specifically, Ogbokor-Etaluku said that the entire youths of the Niger Delta region had aligned themselves with the ultimatum proclaimed by Tompolo, warning that the safety of oil workers would not be guaranteed in the coming days.
Spokesman of Gbaramatu Traditional Council, Chief Godspower Gbenekeme expressly told the Minister; “The people seated here are not IYC executives that you can just call to Abuja, the presence of soldiers in our region is not the reason for peace, it is because of our resolve, we want that board to be constituted, the ultimatum stands, after the ultimatum and nothing is done, don’t blame anybody”, he said.
Making his comments, Akpabio said that it was necessary for the youths to give peace a chance going by the fragile nature of the Niger Delta region, saying “It is only someone who has not seen a war that would be talking of war.
“When others are having their issues and they want to take it to the Federal Government, we are saying this region should not join them. I am saying this because the last time a lot of their young ones were killed, as a young man I saw where mothers threw their kids in the pit toilet so that soldiers don’t locate them with the cry of the baby. I saw people sleep in the open field of primary schools. I saw where somebody will be walking on the road and the next thing you hear is ‘gbo’ and you see blood gushing out and he doesn’t even know he has been shot so we must not allow our region to boil, we must support the federal government, particularly this present government”, Akpabio added.
He said that his visit was primarily to consult the people on the way forward and also to appeal for peace.
According to him, his consultative meetings with stakeholders would be extended to other Kingdoms within the Niger Delta region.
