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… Accuse NSA, NNPC of Plot to Under-develop Ijaw land, Niger Delta
An Ijaw group, the Movement for the Survival of the Ijaw ethnic nationality of the Niger Delta, MOSIEND, has called on the Federal Government to release the seized marginal oil field which gave the state the right of an oil prospecting licence, OPL, between 2003 and 2007, and led to the establishment of the Bayelsa Oil Company Limited, BOCL.
MOSIEND made the call Monday in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa state capital during the inauguration of some additional members of its national executive office as well as its clan leadership.
Speaking at the event, MOSIEND President, Mr Kenneth Tonjo West, berated the Federal Government for revoking the licence formerly given to the oil rich homogeneous Ijaw state “for no verifiable reasons.”
The group warned that should the Federal Government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC and its subsidiaries agencies in charge of awarding oil prospecting licences, fail to return the said field to the state in 30 days, beginning from today that the Federal Government should expect graver consequences of its action.
MOSIEND argued that their call for the return of the oil field back to the state became necessary as the Ijaws who produce the nation’s economic mainstay have borne the brunt of oppression and marginalization for more than half a century since the discovery of oil in commercial quantities in Ijaw land, with no commensurate development in their communities across the states of the Niger Delta region.
The group described the recent directives by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to some northern states to mine and sell to it gold found in their respective states as another reason for the Ijaws in particular and by extension the Niger Delta region to start controlling their natural resources, noting that the injustice meted out to the Ijaws has for years became unbearable.
On the planned investigation of the activities of the Presidential Amnesty Programme by the Federal Government, the group accused the office of the National Security Adviser, NSA of mismanaging no fewer than #400 billion appropriated to the programme between 2015- date, just as they demanded that they give account of how the alleged funds were deployed.
While frowning at the looting and hijack of the well intended EndSARS protest by hoodlums in parts of the country, the group also condemned the military and other security agencies for opening fire on Nigerians protesting against the now disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS and Police brutally, calling for thorough investigation to unravel those behind the killings and dastardly acts which characterized the protests in some states.
“As Ijaw people, we’ve been at the receiving end of oppression and marginalization in this nation. For years, we’ve been the ones producing the mainstay of the Nigeria’s economy and yet we don’t have nothing to show for”, the group said.
“We call on the Federal Government to return the marginal oil field owned by Bayelsa State, the Jerusalem of the Ijaw nation back to the state or face the consequences in 30 days time. If Zamfara and other Northern states could mine and sell their gold to the Central Bank of Nigeria, then the time has also come when the Ijaw people and by extension the Niger Delta people should also be allowed to manage their natural resources”, MOSIEND added.
Meanwhile the pioneer president of MOSIEND who also doubles as the incumbent chairman of its elders’ council, Elder Timi Kaiser Ogoriba, has lambasted the Federal Government for what he described as systematic sustenance of marginalization of the Ijaw nation and the Niger Delta region.
Ogoriba hinted that in the nearest future the Federal Government would see the unity of the Ijaw people and other Niger Delta groups against its oppressive and subjugating tendencies through formation of stronger synergies aimed at foiling any attempt by enemies of the development of the Ijaw people and Nigeria.
