Mkpoikana Udoma 01 February 2017, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt – The chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, has appealed to militants to stop destroying oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta.
Senator Ndoma-Egba made the plea during a courtesy visit by the Cross River State University of Technology, CRUTECH, Alumni Association to the NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt.
He appealed to all aggrieved people in the region to observe a truce because “we are in urgent need of development in the region and it is only in an atmosphere of peace that we can develop.”
Senator Ndoma-Egba stressed that the issues of poverty and restiveness could only be addressed when development was allowed to thrive, noting: “We cannot develop in an environment of militancy.”
According to him, the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has shown good faith by increasing the financial allocations to the development agencies in the Niger Delta region, and the least the people of the region could do was to reciprocate and show good faith by halting the breaches in oil and gas infrastructure.
“President Buhari has demonstrated goodwill in some of the steps he has taken. If you look at the 2017 budget, there is a marginal increase in everything concerning the region.
“Allocation to Niger Delta Ministry went up, the budget of the NDDC went up, and the budget of the Amnesty Programme went up. Now, something is being done with some urgency on the completion of the East-West road.
“We have the Lagos-Calabar rail line and recently the vice president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, visited Delta State and gave very firm assurances that the problems of the region will be addressed urgently,” he said.
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