ASARI TASK NIGER DELTANS TO MONITOR THEIR GOVERNORS

Niger Delta activist, Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo Asari, has called on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency grant amnesty to repentant criminal gang leaders, militants and their members.

He said the militants’ state government should provide encouragements to the militants in the area of scholarship for them to get educational qualification and skill acquisition.

Besides, Asari advised people of the region to hold their governors accountable, saying it is the only way of ameliorating the crisis in the region.

In a paper titled: The Role of Niger Delta Communities in Conflict Resolution, delivered at a workshop organised by National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas in Owerri, Asari accused political officeholders of frittering away 13% derivation fund won by Niger Delta activists, some of whom paid the supreme price.

He said, “One way of ameliorating the crisis in the region is for the state government to be held accountable to the people. The monies accruing to the oil bearing states under the 13% derivation was from the painful struggle and sacrifices of the people of the oil bearing communities as exemplified in the supreme price paid by Ken Saro-Wiwa and other martyrs.

“It was not the political office holders who made it possible for the Nigerian state too grudgingly part with the so-called 13% derivation funds. It is therefore ironical, that the people who fought and paid the supreme price for the realisation of this fund are no in charge of its management and disbursement and it is the people on the side of the Nigerian state who are known collaborators and “Uncle Toms”, who now manage and disburse these funds.

“How can this conflict and crisis be abated while the real stakeholders are not even given the back bench but are totally driven away with scorn and insults by the very people who claim that all was well and fine with the Niger Delta when most of us were in the trenches.

“With this situation, the crisis, conflict, strife and circle of violence wwill never come to an end in the region. Until these government officials are made to surrender a greater percentage of these derivation funds to the people of the oil bearing communities through the setting up of state oil producing areas development commissions as it has been done in Ondo, Edo, Delta and Imo States.”

Similarly, the leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force and Alabo Ed-Abali of Kalabari Kingdom suggested that a minimum of 70% of the derivation fund should be paid to the oil commissions.

“I suggest that 70% of the 13% derivation fund should be allocated to these commissions and the managers of these commissions should be nominated to the commission by the oil bearing communities themselves and not political appointees of the various Niger Delta state governors’, he added.