Oil theft: PANDEF asks FG to apologise to Niger Deltans, set up Judicial Panel of Inquiry

Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) says following the recent discoveries of crude oil thieving traceable to the high and the mighty, President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipreye Sylva, should apologise to Niger Deltans.

The apex socio-cultural Niger Delta organisation also urged the president and Minister to urgently launch a full-scale investigation by constituting a Judicial Panel of Inquiry to ascertain the perpetrators of the outrageous thievery.

These were contained in a communique issued after PANDEF’s extraordinary meeting held on Thursday in Abuja and chaired by the forum’s national leader and elder statesman, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark.

The crucial meeting, which focused on the state of the nation, had in attendance members of the PANDEF Board of Trustees, the National Executive Committee (NEC) and State Executive Committees (SEC).

Others were other critical stakeholders of the Niger Delta region, including former governors, former ministers, former members of the National Assembly, traditional rulers, former ambassadors, academics, political and business leaders, civil activists, and women and youth leaders.

While empathizing with other Nigerians, all over the country, over loved ones lost to the ravaging floods, PANDEF called on President Buhari to visit Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers states, to assess the level of damage and destruction.

The body also called on relevant agencies of the Federal Government as well as the international and indigenous oil companies, other corporate bodies and well-meaning individuals to assist ravished flood victims in the region.

“PANDEF particularly calls on the Federal Ministry of Works, the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), NDDC, the military and other relevant agencies of the federal government to immediately initiate repair works on the collapsed portions of the East-West Road, which have resulted in the isolation of the entire Bayelsa State from the rest of the country.

“We further call on the Federal Ministry of Works to begin an assessment of the quality of work on the all-important East-West Road, which connects the oil-producing states of the country.

“PANDEF also constitutes a Twelve-man Committee to coordinate its relief efforts for the flood victims.

“And calls on the Federal Government to urgently undertake comprehensive technical studies and plans with timelines for a solution to this question of flooding including building new Dams like Zungeru and Kashimbila, as was undertaken by former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan,” the body stated.

On the recent startling revelations of massive and systematic oil theft, PANDEF expressed total shock, commended the efforts of Chief Government Ekpemupolo alias Tompolo and youths of the Niger Delta, “who by their diligence and patriotic zeal, recently uncovered the mind-boggling mechanisms of those pillaging our oil resources.”

The group, however, opined that “with the admission by the management of the NNPC, of the existence of the sophisticated syndicate, which for several decades, has continued to siphon the wealth of the country; PANDEF calls for an apology to the people of the Niger Delta, who have been falsely accused over the years.

“This huge state of oil theft further re-enforces our call for True Federalism to afford our people better participation in the operations and management of the wealth in the Niger Delta.

“We further request the Federal Government to set up the mechanism for setting up modular refineries around the Niger Delta to bring an effective end to artisanal refining.”

PANDEF also cautioned the Federal Government against any ill-advised plan to terminate the Presidential Amnesty Programme “given the rumours that the government is scheduling to wind up the programme before the end of the Buhari administration.

“Going forward, the Amnesty Programme should be extended to include the full re-integration of all beneficiaries.”

On the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), PANDEF said the sack of Mr Effiong Okon Akwa, interim administrator of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) on Thursday and the appointment of Engr. Emmanuel Audu-Ohwavborua, with three interim heads in about three years, was awful and called for substantive management and governing board to be constituted in line with the NDDC Act, without further delay.

Ahead of the 2023 General Elections, the South-South apex body reiterated the stance of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum that the principle of zoning and power rotation between the North and the South remained sacrosanct and would, in due course, make known to the public its preferred candidate among the two presidential candidates from the south.

On the alleged renewed pushing of the Water Resources Bill at the national assembly, PANDEF “condemns the insistence of the Federal Government to pursue its obnoxious Water Resources Bill and restates that it will be sternly resisted.”

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