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By Amos Okioma
Niger Delta ex-agitators and civil society groups have reeled out the benefits of the solar streetlights initiated by the Dr Samuel Ogbuku-led Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) saying they have reduced criminality in the nine states of the region.
The ex-agitators, who rose from their meeting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Monday commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for appointing a visionary board to manage the affairs of the commission.
The ex-agitators and the civil society groups passed a vote of confidence in Ogbuku and the board during the meeting, which was held at the instance of the National Chairman of First Phase Ex-Agitators, HRH Henry Binidodogha, aka Egbeme One, the king of Ofunama kingdom.
The Secretary-General, First Phase Ex-agitators, general Nature Dumale Kiegha, who spoke after the meeting, hailed various interventionist projects and programmes of the board’s managing director, Ogbuku, and said the streetlight project had impacted positively on communities.
Dumale observed that the aged people in the communities were excited at the streetlights, which he said had chased away many criminal elements and brought back nightlife to the creeks and towns.
Dumale, the chairmanship candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) for Khana Local Government Area in the just-concluded election in Rivers State, said the NDDC light-up project had renewed the hope of the people of the region in line with President Tinubu’s agenda.
He said: “The meeting was held at the expense of the National Chairman of the first phase Ex-Agitators, His Roya Highness. Henry Binidodogha, aka Egbeme One, the king of Ofunama kingdom and after reviewing the operation of the NDDC under Dr Samuel Ogbuku, we passed a vote of confidence in Ogbuku and his board.
“We are impressed with the light-up Niger Delta programme that had seen the light of the day. We have observed very closely that criminality has reduced in many of our local communities in the region because of the operation light up Niger Delta.
“For the first time, as critical stakeholders in the region, we have seen that our aged parents and relatives, who don’t know the location of the NDDC office in Port Harcourt and who don’t know much about NDDC are benefitting from Ogbuku’s interventionist programmes.
“The solar light project is the first of its kind in the history of NDDC. This solar lights have chased away darkness from many communities and have become a permanent reminder to the people that there is an interventionist agency in the region.
“The light has brought community lifestyles back again and we know that it will make this Christmas exciting. We can see community people enjoying nightlife. We can see them chatting and playing under the solar light. This is not just in one state. it is happening in the nine states of the Niger Delta region”.
Dumale described the Ogbuku-led board as accountable and transparent and called on all stakeholders in the region to support the commission’s management.
He said the ex-agitators were also happy that Ogbuku was working round the clock to roll out a solar-powered water projects across the region to solve the problem of lack of potable water in the Niger Delta.
He said: “We are calling on critical stakeholders, opinion leaders, politicians and all ethnic groups to give all their support to the Samuel Ogbuku-led administration so that he can do more as solar water project will soon begin to provide potable water to communities.
“Potable water has been one of the challenges of the Niger Delta region and we know that this board with its solar water project will tackle it. Insecurity is gradually frizzling because of the operation light up Niger Delta and waterborne diseases will soon be a thing of the past with the upcoming water project of Ogbuku”.
Dumale said the ex-agitators were no longer interested in deploying violence as a means of agitation. Advocating through the media has become the new means of our agitations, we believe in the philosophy that says, the Pen is stronger than the gun, we call on the Federal Government to continue listening to their demands.
He urged the Federal government to ignore the antics of the enemies seeking to interrupt the tenured administration of Ogbuku and his board.
“We are calling on the Federal Government to ignore antics of the enemies and ensure the board of NDDC remains substantive. We no longer want to have anything to do with an Interim administration because it doesn’t allow the NDDC to deliver its mandate.
“We want to thank President Tinubu for setting up this substantive board that has transformed the NDDC into an accountable agency that follows due process. Today, contract award letters from NDDC have seals and without them they are not authentic.
“The transformation that has been brought into NDDC by Ogbuku is encouraging and we are passing a vote of confidence in him. We appeal to him to continue showing capacity in leadership. We appeal to the Federal government to keep giving him all the support he needs”.
In his remarks, the spokesman of Serving & Leading without Bitterness Initiative, Comrade Peter Freeborn said the solar lights were of high quality.
He added that the project light up Niger Delta had restored community nightlife engagements allowing people to gather for social interactions without fear of molestation.
