BY Emma Amaize in Belgium
BRUSSELS—SPECIAL Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Chief Executive Officer, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, has told the European Parliament to mount pressure on European Union, EU, countries, particularly Britain, to rescind their controversial travel advice on Nigeria.

Kuku made the call in Brussels, Belgium, in an address to members of Committees of European Parliament with interest in Niger Delta.

He said in the alterna-tive, if Britain and few other EU countries, who master-minded the travel advice maintain that Niger Delta was still unsafe for business, all the oil and gas multinational companies, including Shell Petroleum Development Company, Total-Elf, and others in the region should be told to vacate the region until the environment becomes secure enough for business.

The meeting with EU parliamentarians, who will be in Nigeria on a facts-finding mission, was facilitated by the Hope for Niger Delta Campaign, HNDC, a non-govern-mental organisation based in The Netherlands, foun-ded by Niger-Delta activist, Mr. Sunny Ofehe.

Kuku spoke on Develop-ment Opportunities and Challenges in the Niger-Delta: A Post-Amnesty, DDR, Perspective, at the session with the lawmakers which is the only directly-elected body of the EU. It has 736 members, elected once every five years by the 27-member states.

He flayed EU develop-ment agencies which claimed they were carrying out development activities in Nigeria, noting that there was no single project in the Niger Delta region. He called for a probe into their modus operandi in Nigeria.

Kuku said: “I want to talk about this very deceitful thing European Union or countries in Europe, particularly Britain, are doing— the travel advice. There are over 1,000 expatriates working in the Niger Delta. There is crime everywhere in the world.

Why the travel advice? The travel advice that must be given by Europe, if it must be given, is France telling Total-Elf to leave Niger Delta. Don’t give travel advice to individuals. Give it to multinationals. That would be better.

The Netherlands and Britain can also come together and give travel advice to Shell to leave Nigeria, otherwise their advice is deceitful.

“So, you (parliamentarians) need to come in. Whatever you need to do, do it. This travel advice is of concern to us.

“You must, as parliamentarians, push hard to get the European Union to stop it. Particularly Britain, which gave the advice and goes behind and take oil from the same place.”