By Etop Ekanem

Niger-Delta ex-militants under Urhobo-Isoko Youth Wing and ex-agitator leaders of Phases 1, 2, 3 of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), have said the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva and Niger-Delta senators are major cause of Niger-Delta problem.

They alleged that  Sylva and senators from the region gave backing to President Muhammadu Buhari in signing the Petroleum Industry Bill into law.

The ex-militants who spoke through its Chairman, Joseph Figbele, and Vice Chairman,  Solomon Adu said: “’l don’t care’ attitude of both Sylva and N’Delta senators is responsible for the 3 percent for the oil bearing communities because of their personal agradizement.”

The group said the controversial 3 percent approved by the Senate on the PIB hurriedly signed into law by President Buhari, is not only an affront to the lamentation of the oil-bearing communities but a total disregard to the plights and agitations of the people of the region over the years.

The group vowed to make the region unbearable “until the president sends back the bill to the National Assembly for upward review of the 3 per cent for equity share among the host communities whose environments had suffered several degregation over the decades of oil exploration by oil companies. If this advice is not adhered to, the region will not experience relative peace.”

The group said if the bill is sent back to the House for upward review, it will give some level of develepmental leverage to the host communities without any form of stress and agitation, “hence the government has to, with all sincerity of purpose, have a rethink, as the region cannot continue to be treated as second class citizens in a country where they are major stakeholders.”