N621bn Roads: Ex-militant Leaders Oppose Mass Action Against NNPC, NASS

Ex-militant leaders and a group, Peace Advocates, have faulted the threat by the Niger Delta Youths Council to embark on a mass action against the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) if it failed to include more states of the region in its N621 billion road rehabilitation plan.

The group had said it was mobilising its members to occupy the National Assembly (NASS) complex and the NNPC headquarters in Abuja within 48 hours.

But the Peace Advocates and the ex-militant leaders under the aegis of the Niger Delta APC Youth Vanguard (NDAYV), the Niger Delta Advocate for Peace and Good Governance (NDAPGG) and the Coalition of Concerned Ex-Agitators for President Muhammadu Buhari (CCEPMB), in a joint statement issued via electronic mail, described the threat of mass action as misplaced, outrageous, myopic and a decision that could incite violence in the Federal Capital Territory and the Niger Delta states.

The group’s national coordinators, Fiawei Pathfinder (NDAYV), Johnmark Ezon-Ebi (NDAPGG) and   oroye Seleowei (CCEPMB), said though they will support constructive criticisms that will improve the oil and gas sectors of the nation’s economy, “what we will not accept is threats from a non-existing groups that could impede the existing peace of the Niger Delta region and may lead to the deaths of many Niger Delta indigenes if they decided to follow these fictitious groups.”

“Unanimously, we condemned in totality the purported threat suspected to be sponsored by some politicians from the region who are trying every means to ferment trouble and to gain insight into the crisis in the region.

We call on them to desist and retrace their footsteps from the plan to protest and block the NNPC TOWER gate in Abuja.

“We believe the protest is targeted to blackmail and rubbish the good image of the GMD NNPC Engr. Mele Kyari and calling for the resignation of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva in order to malign the duo in bad light before the general public and the presidency”.

Therefore to this end the three groups from the Niger Delta region made up of Ex Militants and stakeholders from the Oil producing communities cut across the nine states of the Niger Delta call on the law enforcement agencies, the Inspector General of Police and the Director General of Directorate of State Security Services to take note and put drastic measures not to allow such nefarious and illegal activities to take place in the capital territory of Abuja and we urge the security agencies to be at red alert and on our side as a law abiding groups who are core believers in support of President Muhammadu Buhari from the Niger Delta region will not equally fold our hands or close our eyes and allow such miscreants who are parading themselves in Abuja”

The coalition also commended the duo of the GMD NNPC Engr. Mele Kyari and the minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, for their performance in the oil and gas sector of the economy