Faction challenges sharing formula
AT a time the Federal government is fiddling with the methodology to adopt in tackling the menace of the Boko Haram insurgency in the country, an uprising is rearing its ugly head among the ex-militant leaders in Niger Delta. The burning issue at stake is the recent “largesse” extended to the ex-militant leaders by the Federal Government. It involved a N5.6billion contract awarded to the ex-leaders of the Niger Delta militant groups for monitoring of oil pipe-lines in the sub-region.
Among those believed to have benefited from the N5.6 billion contract are Tompolo, Ateke Tom, the former leader of the Niger Delta Volunteer Force, Asari Dokubo, and General Bollof.
But there are strong indications that the lump sum of money has become “a torn in the flesh,” for the affected leaders.
National Daily investigations showed that most ofthe ex-militant leaders, who were part of the struggle for the emancipation of the Niger Delta people might have been denied access from being part of the money.
As a result, dependable sources said, “they are threatening that there will be no peace in Niger Delta unless the leaders of the ex-militant groups give them their own package.”
Specifically, a section of the ex-militant leaders “are at a loss as to the method and how the money was shared.”
A spokesman of the group, Mr Gabriel Asabuja, raised the alarm during an exclusive interview with National Daily in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Asabuja, who is second in command to Alhaji Asari Dokubo, who is one of the beneficiary of the contract award said it was basically for the purpose of “preventing vandalization of oil pipelines in the Niger Delta Region.”
He regretted that there was still incessant oil bunkering in the Niger Delta because, “there is no job created by the federal government.”
As a result, he said, “kidnapping and bunkering are the present day bunkering in Niger Delta.”
As if justifying such a resort, he said, “we do not want to continue in wasting lives of the people, hence we have preferred bunkering and kidnapping as means of living because of unemployment in the country.”
On the issue of Boko Haram, Asabuja, who is a strong member of the Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND)urged the operatives “to stay clear from President Goodluck Jonathan and allow him to complete his tenure, whether he is doing well or not.”
Any threat to the life of the President, he said, “may compel us to go back and pick our guns because days are gone when guns are only at the Norths, but now guns are all over the country, and if they need peace, Niger Delta Youth will give them peace but where they want war, we will give them war.”
Meanwhile, stake holders in the South South regions of the country believe that, “only the families of those that were murdered during the hostility period in the region should be compensated by the federal government and not those who were terror to the cooperate existence of Nigeria.”
Similarly, observers are of the view that the action taken by the federal government to appease the leaders of the Niger Delta militant groups may go a long way to escalate another level of unrest in the Niger Delta Region and will bring another threats to investors who may like to invest in the oil and gas industries which is the main stay of the Niger Delta economy.
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