By Ochuko Akuopha

OLEH—COM-MUNITY Development Advocacy Foundation, CODAF, a non-governmental organisation, has blamed the slow pace of development in the Niger Delta region on  the “current structure” of the Nigerian state which it said breeds powerful individuals that work against and suffocate the institutions dedicated to the development of the Niger Delta.

It also accused the Federal  Government of trying to introduce “more legislation that strips Niger Delta indigenous populations of their rights to ownership of their God given natural resources and in the process create avenues for strife.”

CODAF, in a statement by its Executive Director, Mr. Richard Benin, lamented the spate of project abandonment  by the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC and other interventionist agencies  in  the region.