The Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark has said that it is criminal for anybody to want to equate struggle of the Niger Delta agitators to bandits, Boko Haram and other groups causing havoc in the northern part of the country.
Clark claimed that there was no basis for comparison between Niger Delta agitators and the groups responsible for the killings in the North.
He therefore said Sheikh Abubakar Gumi and other Northern leaders seems to be ignorant and envious of the amnesty granted to the Niger Delta agitators by late President Umaru Musa Yar”adua.
The former Federal Commissioner argued that the case of the Niger Delta agitators is quite different from that of the bandits, Boko Haram and other groups causing mayhem in the Northern part of the country.
Gumi in his bid to help address insecurity in the Northern region called for amnesty for Bandits and other groups responsible for insecurity in the region, liking their activities to that of the Niger Delta agitators who were disrupting crude oil production in the region before the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua granted amnesty.
But the Elderstateman on Wednesday in a zoom press conference monitored by NewsSpecng said the northern armed groups are not fighting any just course unlike the Niger Delta agitators who were fighting against the dehumaniztion of their environment among other issues..
He said, “The attempt to equate the Niger Delta Amnesty with the northern bandits is not only criminal, but unconscionable. The whole idea of comparing the Niger Deltamilitants who are exposed to all kinds of diseases, illnesses and deprivations, as a result of oil exploration, with people whom we are told are not Nigerians, who enter into the country illegally, thus violating the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) protocol, is very inhuman.”
He went on, “Sheikh Abubakar Gumi and his cohorts, who are quite many among the Fulanis, seem to be ignorant and envious of the Amnesty granted by late President Umaru
Musa Yar’Adua, in August, 2009, and which was opened for embracing until 4th October 2009, by the then Niger Delta agitators.
“The case of the Niger Delta agitators, is quite different from the case of these murderous, blood thirsty villains, who have taken up arms against the state, using different names, whether as Boko Haram, bandits, killer herdsmen, kidnappers, etc. What is it they are demanding? Initially we were told that as Boko Haram, they were against western education, they started killing, maiming, and
destroying properties. Then they changed and we were told that some of them have changed to answer bandits, and all sorts of names. We are even told by the Government, including Mr. President himself, that they are not Nigerians.
“On the other hand, it was the dehumanization, environmental pollution, destruction of natural source of income generation, which include fishing, farming, timber work etc., exclusion from job which under natural circumstances they are qualified for, but the same Oil Companies will rather go hinterland to recruit people that are not qualified, to do jobs such as diving, underwater welding, and boat driving. Instead of employing the community people who are naturally savvy
in these fields/areas.
“Therefore, the grievances of these Niger Delta youths was and still is, against the government, as against the exploiting Oil Companies which have remained adamant by refusing to develop their areas of operation, but have continued to fly their people from Lagos to perform their job at the rigs in the creek, and flown back to Lagos at the end of each working day. These companies have not deemed it fit to put up buildings and offices to accommodate and quarter their workers. In rare cases when it is necessitated, these oil companies will rather use houseboat which they hire at very high cost, and which they will dismantle at the end of the operation, and then move to another location at the end of their exploration.
“Worst still, if they decide to erect any form of camps in the community, there is an apparent discrimination between these camps which will be well lit with
uninterrupted 24 hours electricity supply, with all amenities, such as hospitals, portable water, good schools for the children and wards of the workers, good roads, well stocked shopping complexes, all only available to the oil company workers, whilst the rest of the host community people can best be described asliving in a stone age, with deplorable and impassable roads, no electricity, the roads around the camp will be tarred to their Airstrip. The villages and communities are left in abject poverty and neglect. The people of the host communities do not even take part in execution of contracts in these oil companies. The young men of the communities are jobless in their own homes,
meanwhile jobs are flying over their heads. No oil blocs are given to sons and daughters of the region. When these agitations started, several attempts were made by the Federal Government and the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), where Committees were set up. For instance, there was the Gen. Ogomudia Committee, and there was the Gamaliel Onosode Committee. I
remember in one of the Committee meetings, I warned that there was need to act fast, and that if those concerned do not listen to us, time will come when the youths will take their destiny in their own hands and fight for their rights. And that will be worrisome. It was thus the lack of timely intervention by all those
concerned, that escalated the whole thing.
“The whole mangrove forest is damaged, people can no longer fit fishes which of course is the peoples’ main source of protein. Frozen fish has now replaced their natural fish. The dangerous emission from gas flaring, is a serious health hazard to
the people of the Niger Delta. Inexplicable soot has taken over the air of the region. People breathe and eat soot in their water and food, because the soot settles on everything recently, we had cases of fishes dying mysteriously andfloating on the rivers of Bayelsa and Rivers States. The people of Ogoni are being tossed up and down with regards the so called Ogoni clean-up.
“These and more, are the injustices the youths of the Niger Delta decided to fight for, when they discovered that all the efforts being made by their fathers,
including going to Court to fight against constitutional breaches of the
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) they have with the 10Cs, and together with the assistance and cover up being given to them by the Federal Government, in some cases preventing the Oil Companies from providing hospitals, schools and other amenities, because it will reduce the Oil Revenue of 60% of their profits
being paid to the NNPC and the Federal Government. I have witnessed such occasions when I was a practicing Lawyer.
