Some Ijaw elders and traditional rulers under the aegis of Bayelsa Elders for Progress, Peace and Good Governance, have accused some of aides of President Muhammadu Buhari of frustrating the federal government’s proposed dialogue with militant group, Niger Delta Avengers, NDA.
The monarchs and the elders, while commending the president’s resolve to spearhead the dialogue, expressed worries over the alleged show of deceit, insincerity among the presidential aides from the Niger Delta.
According to the group, their attitude had created a distrust between the militant group and the Federal Government.
The group headed by their Coordinator, Chief Ayibatonye Goodnews, and the Secretary, Chief Lucky Ebifaghe, made the claim in an open letter to the President.
They opined that recent activities of some prominent aides from the Niger Delta such as the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, and the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brig.-Gen. Paul Boroh (retd.), were allegedly frustrating the peace efforts of the Federal Government.
They called on the president to forthwith investigate the genuiness of purported meetings held between Boroh and Kachikwu.
According to the group, “How can they claim to have met stakeholders and the militant attacks continue?
“They met some fake militants and stakeholders and wasted scarce resources of the Federal Government on jamboree.
“The Amnesty boss, who claimed to have relocated to the creeks of the region was only sighted in a certain community holding clandestine meetings without solution to the continued bombing of the oil and gas facilities.
“Buhari should investigate the money expended on the jamboree without result.
“We insist that the Presidential Amnesty Office should be probed following the alleged meeting with fake Avengers.”
While strongly alleging that many of the stakeholders had enriched themselves from the self-created jamboree in the region, they insisted that the genuine Niger Delta stakeholders should be consulted for sustainable peace in the region.
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