A Niger Delta group, Coalition of Riverine Deltans, CoRN, has said states in the Niger Delta region should control their oil/gas resources the same way Zamfara state government in the North has been left by Federal Government to oversee resources from its gold deposits.
CoRN in a statement by the spokesman, Meshach Bebenimibo, said: “Niger Delta states want to control it’s crude oil and gas just like Zamfara state is doing with gold.”
“The Coalition of Riverine Deltans frowns at the Federal Government of Nigeria for enslaving the core Niger Deltans and Niger Delta at large. Our oil is a national cake, while the gold in Zamfara belongs to the Northern people.”
“The governor of Zamfara state, Bello Matawalle, revealed recently that the state government has struck a deal to supply gold worth N5 billion to the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and he made it clear that the gold deposits belong to his state.
“Do they think we are fools in Niger Delta, if Zamfara state owns the gold, which is a natural resource or mineral resource in their land and government is requesting them to bring N5bn gold, then, the federal government should also allow Niger Delta to supply it crude oil, whatever quantity they want since we own the oil
“It is really egocentric of the north acting their resource control through Zamfara state and by extension President Buhari through the CBN by asking the state to supply N5 billion gold,” the group asserted.
“Gbaramatu kingdom and the core Deltans have suffered a lot in this Buhari administration, the only floating dock/shipbuilding yard in Gbaramatu kingdom has been taken to Lagos,v leaving the already prepared multimillion naira dock place at Okerenkoko to go moribund simply because they want the youths not to be gainfully employed.
“This administration promised us modular refinery, nothing to say about it. They hate us with passion but love our oil with all their might and strength.
“In the 2021 budget estimates, Niger Delta got the lowest part of the budget. This administration abandoned almost all the former President Goodluck Jonathan projects in the core Niger Delta. Why did the Nigerian government hate us this way?
“We call on all Niger Delta governors to stand up to defend the Niger Delta interest. We also demand an increase of 13 percent
“It is our resources that the government is using to develop all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, yet we are the most underdeveloped in Nigeria.
We need industries that can employ the teeming unemployed youths in Nigeria and not railway to Niger Republic. Please use the money you want to use to do railway to Niger country to bring industry from China and the western countries to Nigeria, we need industries and not all this railway stuff,” CoRN stated
Source: Vanguard News
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