Don’t plunge Delta into crisis, DESOPADEC boss pleads with Avengers

The commissioner representing Ijaw ethnic nationality on the board of the Delta State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (DESOPADEC), Chief Favour Izoukumor, has pleaded with members of the New Delta Avengers (NDA) not to plunge Delta State into fresh crisis.

He enjoined Deltans, particularly those from the oil-producing communities, to join forces with Governor Ifeanyi Okowa “to develop the state and not engage in acts capable of plunging our state into crisis and chaos.”

Izoukumor, in a statement made available to journalists in Warri on Wednesday, lauded the proactive steps so far taken by the state government and elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, to nip the threats by NDA in the bud.

“Experiences abound in our history and all over the world that violence has never yielded positive results, either in our agitations or as a means of settling scores.

“So I want to appeal to the New Delta Avengers never to resort to attacks on oil facilities because it is counterproductive to target oil and gas facilities in our lands to show anger and agitation for development. At the end of the day, we will be the ones to suffer it.

“I thank and commend the state government for the sincere and proactive approach it has deployed in handling this delicate issue.

“The present administration means well for the entire state and the people of oil producing areas and has amply displayed this in its handling of development issues affecting us.

“I sincerely commend and thank our leader, Chief Edwin Clark, for his quick, timely and wise intervention in dousing the tension generated by threats of the New Delta Avengers to attack oil facilities in the state,” the Ijaw chief noted.

Chief Izoukumor also appealed to all stakeholders to eschew violence which could further deplete both the state and federal revenues amid a biting recession.

It will be recalled that the NDA had, few weeks ago, accused the state governor of nepotism and tribalism in the allocation of projects in the state as well as the alleged starving of DESOPADEC of funds to deliberately impoverish the oil and gas bearing communities in the state.

The state governor, had, however, denied the allegations, calling on the militant group to shelve their plans to attack oil and gas facilities in the creeks of the state.