By Clifford Ndujihe

NIGER Delta leader, Chief Rita Lori-Ogbebor, has advised Delta State House of Assembly against amending the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC, law without consultation with the communities and stakeholders. Lamenting that what the lawmakers and state government proposed to do would further pauperise the oil producing communities, Lori-Ogbebor, in an interview with Vanguard, weekend, cautioned them against acts that could precipitate crisis in the state, saying:

‘’If the House of Assembly wants peace in the Delta, where all of us will live happily, the matter of DESOPADEC is a matter that no government should jump into without talking to the people and the traditional rulers who are actually suffering in their villages.’’ She urged them to be mindful of the fact that the issue of managing proceeds of the 13 per cent accruing to Delta State was still pending at the Supreme Court.

She said: ‘’I am asking Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to tread softly on this new bill because the DESOPADEC law is built on derivation. You cannot throw it away. For example, he has created some committees and the people who are in those committees have nothing to do with the riverine areas. So I want him to tread softly and not create problems that James Ibori and I had for eight years. The matter is still at the Supreme Court and we will go back to the Supreme Court.

“I fought for 13 per cent derivation which is meant to improve and develop the oil producing areas. It came during the time of (former governor) Ibori. We were all happy because the devastation of oil production in our area and indeed the whole of Niger Delta is unspeakable.

“I fought (Chief Olusegun) Obasanjo to get that 13 per cent. I wanted the government to use the 13 per cent judiciously in the oil producing areas but Ibori was using it as part of state money, hence I went to court. I was in court for eight years with Ibori up to the Supreme Court. The matter is still at the Supreme Court today. The reason I let go or I am waiting is that before Ibori left, he created DESOPADEC. I thought that (former Governor Emmanuel) Uduaghan who was taking over from him, would manage DESOPADEC properly.

“Ibori and the government made a law that 50 per cent will be for the development of the riverine areas and the government will take 50 per cent. And that was what they practised. When they created DESOPADEC, I was happy that Uduaghan would be able to address the problems of the state  through DESOPADEC.

Before Uduaghan left, I was disappointed that the DESOPADEC he left was not the one that I dreamt of.  At the tail end when Uduaghan was leaving, he brought out a bill to make DESOPADEC more effective but he rushed it in the twilight of his tenure and the bill did not go through. ‘’Now, Governor Okowa is creating another bill and he is trying to pattern the bill on the NDDC which is not possible. It cannot be.”