By Ife Osemedua
365Daily – The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has said that the Niger Delta region is not interested in secession.
The Minister made this assertion when he received in audience the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Hajiya Amina Mohammed in his office in Abuja, on Tuesday, July 6, 2021.
Reacting to the current calls for secession in some parts of the nation, Akpabio said, “Let me inform you here that the South-South is not interested in any form of secession. Our stakeholders have said so repeatedly and we stand by that.”
Akpabio had earlier been commended for his peace efforts in the Niger Delta region, by the UN official, Hajiya Mohammed, who advocated for continuous investment in peace in the region, adding that such should not be taken for granted.
According to Mohammed, a former Minister of Environment, before her UN appointment, “the Niger Delta Region has a special place in my heart because I was deeply involved in the granting of Amnesty to former militants in the region by former president Umar Yar’adua. I must commend the Minister for the sustained peace in the region.”
Speaking further, the deputy UN Scribe noted that, “the UN agenda for the Nations must also be seen in the Niger Delta, and we would be very happy to collaborate with the Niger Delta Ministry, adding, “the Ministry needs very strong institutions to drive home the goals and objectives that were set by those who established the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)”.
Earlier in his welcome speech, Akpabio had described the visit of the Deputy UN Scribe as “home coming of someone who did a lot for the region in the area of environment and security, adding “the region that you did so much for, is today the most peaceful in Nigeria, a feat achieved through engagement of strategic stakeholders whenever we noticed any slight sign of discontent.”
The former governor of Akwa Ibom state said that “President Mohammadu Buhari has done so well for the region, through adequate funding of interventionist agencies, because of his committed interest in the development of the region and that was why, when the south-south governors met with the president and demanded an audit of the account of NDDC because they believed so much has been released to the agency in the past and nothing on ground to show for it, he immediately acceded to their request by ordering a forensic audit into the finance of the commission.”
Akpabio disclosed further that, “the interim report on the auditing of the NDDC account is very revealing. Over twelve thousand, one hundred and twenty-eight (12,128) projects with no clear-cut ownership, were built and abandoned and they all became sanctuaries for hoodlum and kidnappers.
“In order to stop this anomaly, we have developed within the ministry, a system called Strategic Implementation Work Plan, where whatever is on ground is captured to avoid duplication of projects, he stressed.”
The president, Akpabio disclosed, “is determined to commission the East West road by next year and have just commissioned the 25year old abandoned headquarters building of the NDDC.’
Akpabio also called on the UN to “assist the Niger Delta people in the area of security, provision of infrastructure and empowerment of our teeming youth”.