Isoko people beg President Buhari for ministerial slot

WORRIED by marginalisation by successive governments in Nigeria, the people of Isoko, Delta South Senatorial District of Delta State have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint one of them as a minister in his next cabinet.

The convener of the Isoko Equity Group, Barr Silas Buowe who made the appeal on behalf of the Isoko people told a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday that since 1999 to date, a total of ten ministers had been appointed from Delta State and no one was appointed from the Isoko.

Buowe told newsmen that the people of Isoko are, “Encouraged to seek the intervention of Mr President because we are confident that he is averse to injustice.

He said the people of Isoko believe that by appointing an Isoko man into the federal cabinet, the President will be righting the wrongs of several decades.

More importantly, the convener of Isoko Equity Forum said the Isoko people voted massively for President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the just concluded general elections.

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“We are therefore confident that our plight will be addressed by him,” he said and added that, while many ethnic groups in the oil-producing states in the Niger Delta Region use violence as a tool to command attention, the Isoko people believe in constructive engagement and negotiations.

While it is the President’s prerogative to appoint whoever he deems qualified as his minister, Buowe said the Isoko nation parades some of the most qualified persons and appealed to the President to kindly consider them in making his choice of next cabinet member from Delta State.

Buowe said the Isoko land is the second place where oil was first struck in commercial quantity, at Utere in 1958, in the present Isoko South Local Government Area of Delta state and added also that Isoko is the largest onshore oil producing area in the Niger Delta Area with its ecological problems.

He said the Isoko nation will not resort to violence but will use every legal and legitimate democratic means to get the attention of the present administration to look in the direction of the Isoko nation in the appointment of his ministers.