Comrade Celestine Akpobari, national president, Ogoni Solidarity Movement has suggested massive investment in the Niger-Delta region as panacea to incessant militancy in the area.
Akpobari attributed the constant militancy in the area to long years of neglect by successive administrations in the country.
He said, “You don’t make mistake two times, the root cause of the crisis in the Niger-Delta is long years of neglect by successive administrations. Until they begin to address the problem of Niger-Delta, we would not get out of the problem”.
A chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC) Akpbobari lamented at the previous efforts at negotiating with militants which does not translate in better lives for the people of the region.
“President Jonathan negotiated with some militants and ended up making some of them billionaires and another group of militants have now emerged, for how long are we continuing to negotiate with militants”?
He further chided the previous administration for empowering militants without pointing out the project done to better the lives of common people in the area.
On the federal government’s effort to clean Ogoni land, Akpobari described the step as laudable. “This is the first time we are getting to this point; our own son was in office and did not take any step like this.”
Akpobari who expressed confidence in the sincerity of Amina Mohammed, minister of Environment on the cleanup project, urged the government to take the project as a priority so that it would not be a political gimmick.
“We are waiting for them to start work within the next few days or weeks, otherwise we would take them like previous governments”.
Source: Today