Chukwudi Akasike, Port Harcourt
DESPITE acting President Yemi Osinbajo’s warning against hate speeches and threats from any part of the country, a coalition of Niger Delta militants has insisted on its quit notice to northerners living in the oil-rich region.
The militant groups, in a statement on Thursday, also lamented that none of the leaders of the northern groups that issued the quit notice to the people of the South-East living in the North had been arrested.
Signatories of the statement issued in Port Harcourt, who gathered under the aegis of the Coalition of Niger Delta Agitators, are John Duku (Niger Delta Watchdogs), Ekpo Ekpo (Niger Delta Volunteers), Osarolor Nedam (Niger Delta Warriors), Okon Etete (Niger Delta Peoples Fighters), and Asukwo Henshaw (Bakassi Freedom Fighters).
Others are Ibinabo Horsfall (Niger Delta Movement for Justice), Duke Emmanson (Niger Delta Fighters Network), Inibeghe Adams (Niger Delta Freedom Mandate), and Ibinabo Tariah (Niger Delta Development Network).
The coalition said, “As a follow-up on our previous press release, a joint meeting between the Coalition of Niger Delta Agitators and youth leaders across the Niger Delta region held today (Thursday) in Port Harcourt to review the state of the Nigerian nation and the position of Niger Delta in the Nigerian state. After hours of deliberation; we hereby resolve as follows:
“All northerners living in the Niger Delta have been given three-month notice to quit the Niger Delta before October 1, 2017. We still stand by our previous decisions and we demand the immediate return of the oil blocs owned by northerners to Niger Delta people.
“All oil and gas companies operating in oil bloc(s)/well(s) illegally owned by northerners should also vacate such oil blocs/wells/platforms before October 1, 2017.
“We demand an immediate relocation of the NNPC headquarters to the Niger Delta and the replacement of the Group Managing Director of the NNPC with an indigene of the Niger Delta region. All offices/boards/agencies that have anything to do with oil and gas should be relocated immediately to the Niger Delta region and all non-Niger Delta directors/staff replaced with Niger Delta indigenes.”
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