Ebipams To Buhari: Niger Delta May Boil Again, Appoint Amnesty Coordinator Now – The Liberator
By Binebai Princewill
National Coordinator of Ijaws in Oil and Gas, Comr. Ebipams Johnny has predicted that the Niger Delta region may boil again if president Muhammadu Buhari refuses to appoint a substantive competent Ijaw son from Delta to manage the office as its coordinator.
The national coordinator, Ebipams made the prediction yesterday in a statement signed and issued to newsmen in Warri, a copy of which was sent to The Liberator Newspaper.
He also alerted Nigerians that recession is imminent after the pandemic, stressing that there is the urgent need to appoint a substantive coordinator in the Amnesty office to take care of the interest of the region.
Comr. Johnny particularly described the interim committee of the Amnesty programme as an act of oppression taken too far, wondering on what Northerners would be doing in a programme established for Niger Deltans alone.
He said President Muhammadu Buhari must urgently begin to strategize on economic recovery plans in a post Covid-19 Pandemic era, stressing that the current administration must not allow a repeat of what happened in 2009.
The statement reads in part: “This is again a clarion call for the presidency to begin strategizing on sustaining safe operations void of vandalism in our Oil and Gas operations with the given fall in crude oil price and the politics that has beclouded the Presidential Amnesty Program.
“Our position as Ijaw professionals in Oil and Gas is to reiterate the obvious that recession is imminent after this PANDEMIC and feelers from our youths and survey conducted in the Niger Delta region is that the Presidential Amnesty Program is yet to address the core reasons why militancy thrived prior to the 2009 Presidential offer for amnesty by the Yaradua led federal government.
“We anticipate a reawakening of unrest in the region unless a competent hand with a background knowledge of the ever-volatile region be appointed to pilot the Presidential Amnesty Program if not we are doomed and the national recession will be worse off in the committee of nations after the pandemic.
“Our call is a noble one not only to avert a recurrence of 2009 but to be safe whilst in our different oil rigs and production platforms. We have enjoyed relative peace and would want a continuation until these our brothers are fully integrated back to the society. We won’t fold our hands as Oil and Gas workers in this region and watch another attack on oil facilities.” Comr. Ebipams Johnny asserted.
Johnny noted that it is high time President Muhammadu gets serious with the Niger Delta region, frowning that the interim committee is against the interest of the people and that such grave error should be urgently corrected.
