By Emma Amaize in France
PARIS — SPECIAL Adviser to the President on Niger-Delta Affairs and Chairman, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, has criticised European Union, EU, countries, particularly Britain, for issuing travel advice to their citizens not to travel to the Niger Delta region on grounds of insecurity.

He said it was an act of hypocrisy and governmental deceit.

Kuku, who spoke at a conference by the French Institute of International Relations, IFRI, in Paris, said despite the fact that they are the major beneficiaries of the amnesty pro-gramme, multinational oil companies were not doing enough for former militants in the region.

He said while the Presidential Amnesty Office was sending the former militants abroad for training, the oil companies, which formed a coalition to train 3,000 former militants, were training them within the country.

He said: “I think the best travel advice that should be given by Europe is to tell their multinationals, such as Total-Elf, and not individuals, to leave the Niger Delta, that it is not safe to explore oil there. That is what we can call multinational advice.

“Britain is the country pushing it. Meanwhile, if I go with 200 Europeans to my creek community in the Niger Delta, children and the aged will come out, touch you and say welcome. The region is at peace. Journalists have gone to the Niger Delta. Investors are today going to Warri, Ughelli.

“Some have lived there for so long they now speak the local pidgin English. Some of these European are from Britain. Same Britain, same Europe is giving travelling advice that you are there (Niger Delta) at your own expense.

”I will not let them rest until they open up on their mischief. You cannot gain so much and deny the people so much. What travel advice are we giving?”

Kuku will today in Brussels, Belgium, address the European Parliament and urge them to ask their respective governments to lift the travel advice on the Niger Delta region.

or the people of the region would find a way of lifting the ban by inviting Europeans for symposiums, workshops and seminars on peace.

He said:

“This is an orchestration by a few European countries, which had influenced most countries of Europe.