BREAKING NEWS, Oil & Gas
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There is confusion over whether the federal government reached a 30-day ceasefire agreement with the Niger Delta militants to stop burst oil installation in the region as it is keeping mum on the issue just as the Niger Delta Avengers tweeted that it never has any such agreement
| By Anayo Ezugwu | Jul 4, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT |
IN its effort to end the resurgence of militancy in the Niger Delta region, the federal government and militant groups in the region, including the Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, appear to have agreed on a 30-day truce. This is to give President Muhammadu Buhari time to come up with a comprehensive plan to solve the problems of the oil-rich region including degradation of the environment as a result of pollution and poor infrastructure.
Although the Nigerian government is keeping mum about the ceasefire, it has been reaching and holding meetings with stakeholders in the region including the ex-militants who has promised to stop the NDA from bursting oil facilities in Bayelsa State. The 30 days of ceasefire was said to have been agreed upon by a federal government team led by Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources, representatives of the militant groups, community leaders and the state governments.
Kachikwu had led a government delegation to different camps in Bayelsa and Delta States, including visiting the temporary site of the Maritime University at Okerenkoko, Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State, in a bid to reach out to representatives of the militant groups to get them to stop their attacks on oil and gas facilities.
The activities of the militants have halved Nigeria’s oil production to some 1.4 million barrels per day, and impacted negatively on power supply in the country and the country’s oil earnings.
According to media reports, Kachikwu was said to have reached out to the militants through back channels and pleaded for some time for the Buhari administration to come up with a comprehensive Niger Delta plan that would address most of their demands. The report stated that the militant groups accepted Kachikwu’s plea, adding that since the agreement was reached there had been no attacks on oil and gas installations in the oil-rich region.
“You would have noticed that there have been no bombings of oil assets in recent days. This is the fall out of the 30 days of quiet reached with the minister and his team. This will give the president time to come up with a comprehensive plan for the Niger Delta.”
THISDAY reported that some of the demands made by the militants were for greater control of the hydrocarbon resources in their communities, improved funding for the Amnesty Programme, clean-up of oil producing communities in the Niger Delta that had been devastated by oil exploration activities, and funding for the Maritime University, among others.
It stated that the problem with respect to the Maritime University stemmed from the fact that Chibuike Amaechi, minister of transportation, whose ministry superintends the university, did not provide for funding of the institution in the 2016 budget. The absence of funding for the tertiary institution was compounded by Amaechi’s preference for funding the Maritime Academy of Nigeria in Oron, Akwa Ibom State, and his demand that a probe be carried out into why N13 billion was spent on acquiring the land alone for the university in Okerenkoko, which resulted in an open disagreement with Kachikwu on the issue.
The N13 billion was allegedly paid to Government Ekpemupolo, also known as Tompolo, ex-Niger Delta militant and fugitive, and has formed part of the basis of his prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Prior to the agreement temporarily ending the attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta, the federal government had ordered the military to withdraw its troops, fighter jets and battleships that had been deployed in the region to flush out the militants.
However, the Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, on Tuesday, June 21, said it never entered into any agreement with the federal government on cessation of hostilities in the Niger Delta region. The group which had claimed responsibility for series of attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta region, in a post on its twitter handle, said: “The NDA High Command never remembers having any agreement on ceasefire with the Nigerian Government.”
Also, a new militant group, Ultimate Warriors of the Niger Delta, UWND, with alleged alliance with a foreign organisation, on Tuesday, June 21, gave the federal government ultimatum to commence implementation of portions of the 2014 National Conference, which created a road map for the rapid development of the region or expect a violent change in the next three years.
Similarly, Niger Delta Patriotic Front, NDPF, another militant group, said that the purported 30-day ceasefire allegedly brokered with militants in Delta State was a ploy by the Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, and its promoters to deceive President Buhari.
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