By EMMA AMAIZE

WARRI—THE paramount ruler of Siembri Kingdom in Delta State, HRM Charles Ayemi-Botu, yesterday, advised South-South delegates at the on-going national conference in Abuja not to contemplate returning home to the Niger Delta, if they allow any reduction in the current 13 per cent derivation on oil resources.

Speaking to Vanguard, former national chairman of Association of Traditional Rulers of Oil Minerals Producing Communities of Nigeria, ATROMPCON, said: “The mandate we gave them is to demand for 50 per cent derivation. Unfortunately, the North which came with a predetermined agenda to overturn the status quo says no. They should negotiate for at least, 30 per cent.

“When derivation was raised from three per cent to 13 per cent by the 1999 Constitution, the provision is that it should not be anything less than 13 per cent and our hope was that by now, 20 years after, it would have gone up to 50 per cent.

“Why the fuss over increasing derivation to 50 per cent as if it is a new thing? Did the North, which is asking for a reduction to five per cent, not enjoy 50 per cent derivation at the time it was convenient for them?

“I do not want to believe that our delegates are under any form of pressure not to express our views. Recently, a group of professionals from the South-South and South-East invited the delegates to a parley where they told them that they had not lived up to expectations.

“Looking at what is going on at the conference, the North clearly came with an agenda to fight the South South. The South-West has a clear-cut agenda of regional autonomy, but I am finding it hard to know what the South-South and South-East are putting on the table.”