A former Delta State Oil Producing area Development Commission (DESOPADEC) commissioner, Chief Henry Ofa, has appealed to aggrieved persons in the Niger Delta to embrace the option of dialogue and stop further bombings of oil and gas facilities.
Chief Ofa, now a member of the Ogwashi-Uku Polytechnic, Delta State board, who fielded questions from journalists at Oghara, said even though the agitators might be right in their demands, they should realise that bombing of oil and gas facilities was not the right option.
The PDP chieftain said rather, they could only achieve their aims through a roundtable dialogue with government since their actions had negative effects on the economy of the nation and the revenue base of the Delta State government.
Ofa appealed to the Federal Government to exhaust all avenues of peaceful negotiations with the agitators so that the fragile peaceful atmosphere could be sustained for a permanent one and that the government should be sincere and never pretend over it.
“Further militarisation of the area could only result in more deaths and further degradation of the area and not an end to the solution, but the aggrieved Deltans must come to a roundtable dialogue with those concerned for peace to remain in the Niger Delta region since confrontation has never been the best option to any crisis,” he noted.
Chief Ofa, speaking further on the level of development of Delta State since created 25 years ago, remarked that the state had achieved a lot thus far in the area of health, with the establishment of the gigantic health facilities across the state, improved educational facilities with the establishment of several higher institutions and many others.