BY TheCable
Another group of Niger Delta elders has met with the federal government and presented a different set of demands.
But at the meeting with Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo in Abuja on Tuesday, TheCable understands that he told the delegation the issue of vandalism must first be resolved “because that is the most important thing now”.
Attacks have continued on oil installations despite a series of meetings between government officials and different groups from the Niger Delta.
Osinbajo, sources told TheCable, said the problems in the oil-producing region predated the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
“He told them that if the elite in all regions of the country decide to end the problems in their regions, the problems will be resolved,” an insider told TheCable.
The VP also expressed worries that it is Nigerian producers that are bearing the brunt of the incessant attacks on installations — and not the international oil companies (IOCs).
This is coming 14 days after the first group met with Buhari and made 16-point demands, including allocation of oil blocks to people from the oil-producing region.
The stakeholders led by Edwin Clark and King Alfred Diette-Spiff had on November 1 presented demands including a halt to militarisation of the region, review of the amnesty programme, proper funding of the Niger Delta Development Commission NDDC), stopping gas flaring, and return of oil companies headquarters to the region.
On Tuesday, a different group called Niger Delta Peoples Congress (NDPC), also led by Spiff, met with Osinbajo and asked for the interest of the “boys” to be taken into consideration to halt the attacks on pipelines.
The delegation, made up of 38 members, said some issues were left out in the first presentation to Buhari.
The president is currently out of the country.
Excerpts from the presentation to the VP, signed by congress secretary, Benjamin Okaba, a profession, were made available to the media.
This delegation is not only to re-affirm the plausible submissions made earlier but to also prioritize these concerns and place them in clearer perspectives. This is premised on our objective assessment of the anxieties, sentiments and myriads of reactions from the key drivers and players in the crises across and outside the region that immediately trailed the meetings.
We are very confident that our modest contributions as articulated below would constitute the panacea to the age long crises in the Niger Delta Region.
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