The Pan Niger Delta
Coastal States Stakeholders Consultative Forum, led by Chief Edwin
Clark-led, on Saturday rejected the Federal Government’s proposed two-day
summit in the region, the group vowed not to attend the event.
The leaders also called on the government of the United States to prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari to abide by his earlier agreement to hold dialogue with militants in the region.
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The leaders also called on the government of the United States to prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari to abide by his earlier agreement to hold dialogue with militants in the region.
Clark, who was
represented by a former Police Affairs Minister, Alaowei Bozimo, said this when
a three-man delegation from the US visited the elders and stakeholders at
Effurun, Delta State.
This is the second
time officials from the US are visiting the Clark dialogue team which also
enjoys the support of some militant groups.
It was a closed-door
meeting and journalists were barred from attending it.
The US officials, who were acting with the
support of the Federal Government, were told to prevail on the President to
ensure a genuine dialogue in the face of the renewed militancy in the region.
A militant group in
the region, Niger Delta Avengers, on Friday blew up a crude oil exporting line
in Bonny, Rivers State, to protest what they described as government’s delayed
tactics in holding talks with the people of the region.
However, Bozimo told
journalists after the meeting, “It is timely that the US has come again on a
fact-finding mission. We just told them that we want a dialogue and not the
summit that Federal Government intended to convene.
“It is equally a wise
decision of the government to have suspended that inappropriate summit going by
the reports we have received. We believe that the answer is not a summit. The
answer is dialogue. The way forward is not the jamborees or endless summits.
“A very incongruous
gathering of nearly 500 persons with government officials talking to themselves
at Abuja, which would have been the experience with the summit, could not have
addressed the key issues. That is why we are objected to the summit. Dialogue
and not the monologue they were trying to put up can resolve the crises in the
region.’’.
He also that leaders
in the region trusted the US fact-finding team to deliver their position to its
government.
Bozimo said, ‘‘They
have come to see things for themselves. And we believe they will take the
feedback to their government who will then be in a position to advise the
Federal Government in order to solve the current situation in the Niger
Delta.’’
Some of the leaders
who attended the meeting included Prof. Gordini Darah, Chief Isaac Jemide,
Prof. Luck Akaruese, Dr. Sylvester Piniki, Chief (Mrs.) Margaret Unukegbon and
Gen. Don Idada Ikpemwen (retd.) among others
