Our Region Has Been Auctioned Off, Enough Is Enough, Mr President

The Ijaw National Congress has called on the President Muhammadu Buhari to take urgent steps to address the growing agitations in the Niger Delta over issues bordering on the development of the region.

Releasing a statement in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State Capital on Saturday, November 6, the President of INC, Prof. Benjamin Okaba, said the timely intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari would help reduce the rising tension in the region.

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Okaba stated that no one should blame the INC for any breach of security if the boiling anger in the Niger Delta results in the breakdown of law and order as the people are fed up with the lackluster approach of the President to several issues he listed in the statement.

“The general feeling is that the region has been auctioned off to one man to do with it as he pleases! We feel inclined to let you know, so that you might take prompt action. If you do not take prompt action and the indigenous cross-cultural and multi-ethnic feelings of discontentment assume critical mass and become kinetic, we can do nothing to hold things back.

“We have verified reports that peaceful Ijaw protesters from the host community of the NDDC, were brutalized, beaten and injured, while the women were molested and abused by thugs working for, and on the orders of the Interim Administrator.

“We have reports which we are currently investigating that, emboldened by the onslaught on the Ijaw community, there is an attempt to procure the services of Ijaw ex agitators to cause mayhem and unrest within the region,” Okaba said.

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Below are the highlighted issues, which he described as evil against the ijaw nation, they include;

“The continued existence of the grossly illegal vehicle of Interim Administration at the NDDC. “The abuse of propriety and self-enrichment of a select few to the detriment of regional development.

“The futility of the exercise of a forensic audit that is rumoured to be cloaked in so much shame and ineptitude that it might never see the light of day.

“The daily reports of abuse of privilege of office that no one is paying attention to, at the government level.

“The monumental deception of the Presidency and the Niger Delta Region by the Interim contraption and its promoters.

“The rape, emasculation and waste of the commonwealth of the Region by those charged with its efficient use.

“The deliberate non-inclusion of any roads in Ijaw territories in the N621.237bn Federal Government Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme to be carried out by the NNPC. It is even more vexatious that the entire South-South region that sustains the country has the least of kilometres (81.9km) to be covered. This marginalization in national infrastructure development is totally unacceptable.”

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The Ijaw leader said the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs no longer enjoys the support and goodwill of the people of the Niger Delta, stressing that his continued imposition on the area is unfortunate and counter-productive for both Federal Government and the region.

On a final note, he added that the people of the region have resolved not to condone any further use of thugs to molest women and beat up young men in the region.