LEADERS of the Pan-Niger Elders Forum (PANDEF), on Saturday, reassured Yoruba, Hausa, and other non-indigenes resident in the Niger Delta of their safety.
The leaders spoke against the background of last week’s quit notice to non-natives by a group of militants, coupled with a threat of self-determination by October 1.
According to the deputy leader of PANDEF, Chief Victor Attah, and another member of the organisation, Colonel Tony Nyiam, the region is committed to calls for the restructuring.
Attah, who is a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, said the PANDEF has been engaging all stakeholders on issues affecting the region, based on the wishes and aspirations of the people.
“We have, in clear terms, condemned that quit notice. It is ill-advised and completely wrong. We also condemned the purported plan to declare a Republic of Niger Delta, as we are totally committed to restructuring and federalism based on equity and fairness,” he stated.
He said he and other leaders from the region were in “constant contact with the young men in the Niger Delta,” stressing that the need for the government to accelerate the process of meeting the demands of the region was the main agenda of the PANDEF leaders meeting with acting President Yemi Osinbajo, last week in Abuja.
“We have emphasised the need for the Federal Government to start doing positive things for the Niger Delta to demonstrate goodwill based on all its promises. We talked about the modular refinery; the pipeline surveillance contract; relocation of oil firm headquarters to oil-producing states as international oil companies to follow, and remember that the acting president had ordered them to move.
“We talked about the need to stop gas flaring and begin positively to clean up Ogoniland. All these things could be started immediately. None of those things we have mentioned need funds from the government, apart from the cleanup of Ogoniland,” he said.
On his part, Col. Nyiam said the leadership of the group moved briskly to douse tension immediately the shadowy group reportedly issued the threats to non-indigenes living in the Niger Delta.
“It is the handiwork of some fifth columnists, who do not want restructuring and are trying to cook up something that does not exist. It not Niger Delta militants that are behind it at all. And Chief Edwin Clark has since come out clearly to denounce all those people. They are not people who we know in any struggle, or people who are interested in the good of the Niger Delta.
He explained that the report about the threat came when PANDEF leaders were at a meeting with their counterparts in the Southern part of the country on crucial national issues.
Clark immediately denounced the action, saying the people of the region had nothing to do with such group. “It is those who do not want restructuring who are beginning to do their usual divide and rule. It is part of the antics of those who want to make the South-South to appear as if in conflict,” he said.
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