A group of ex-agitators drawn from states in the South-South geopolitical zone, yesterday, warned President Muhammadu Buhari’s political appointees and other top government officials to desist from making provocative pronouncements that could truncate the prevailing fragile peace in the restive Niger Delta.

THE Federal Government and multinational oil companies have been urged to collaborate to reduce tension in the Niger Delta region by doing what is right in the oil-rich communities.

THE Nigerian Air Force has said it would deploy drones to secure oil installations in the creeks of Niger Delta.

AGITATORS in the Niger Delta, yesterday, raised the alarm over the huge incursion of foreigners and supposed northern youths into the region, calling on security agencies and Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, to wake up to their responsibilities. 

Barely two months after President Muhammadu Buhari appointed a new Coordinator for the Presidential Amnesty Programme, ex-militants have raised the alarm that there was a plan by some aggrieved persons led by a retired military officer to destabilise the programme and throw the Niger Delta into another round of militancy and chaos.

IJAW Peoples Development Initiative, IPDI, has urged multinational oil companies operating in the Niger Delta region, which refused to relocate their operational headquarters to the area notwithstanding several directives from the Federal Government, to vacate the oil-rich region.

A coalition of civil society organizations in the Niger Delta has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to revisit national security policies to arrest the worsening insecurity in the country.

Special Adviser to the President and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, Prof. Charles Dokubo, yesterday, expressed his determination to work towards achieving sustainable peace in the Niger Delta region.

OVER 50 leaders of ex-agitators across the Niger Delta region have declared that the period of armed demonstration in the region was gone, stressing that  violence does not attract development.

inistry of Niger Delta Affairs has said it is collaborating with the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development; Bank of Industry, BoI; Industrial Training Funda, ITF; Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, SMSE, and other agencies with a view to seeing how best to empower women and youths who are trained in various fields of endeavour in the region.

A Niger Delta environmentalist and Delta State House of Assembly aspirant,  Mr  Sheriff Mulade, has hailed the Federal Government for the successful take-off of the Nigerian Maritime University, Okerenkoko, Delta State.

ABUJA: The Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, has disbursed a total of N45 million to about 90 youths and women in the region, who have successfully undergone its training programme to enable them to start their own trading.

SENATE President, Dr. Bukola Saraki has raised the alarm that Senate Committees on Defence, Army, Airfoce, Navy, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, the Niger Delta and fifteen others were holding the Senate to ransom, following their refusal to submit reports of 2018 budget of their various committees.

THE President, Ijaw Professional Association (Homeland Chapter) Mr. Iniruo Wills, has said that amnesty as a policy has been bastardised and reduced to an instrument for shielding political urchins by the various governments in the country.

South-South leaders and elders under the aegis of Pan Niger-Delta Elders Forum, PANDEF, will converge on Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, “the Jerusalem of Ijaw nation” for a mega rally to chorus their campaign for the restructuring of the polity.
The twisting theme of  tomorrow’s rally aptly reflects the desperation and expectation of of South-South political leaders.