Some Non-Governmental Organizations and other well-meaning sons of the Niger Delta region have called on President Goodluck Jonathan, to sack the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Hon. Orubebe Peter Godsday, with immediate effect.
This call was made in a recent press briefing held in Patani Local Government Area of Delta State by the Niger Delta Peace Keeping Volunteer Front, the Niger Delta Believers’ Group and some repentant militants across the 9 Niger Delta states of the country.
They stated that they have deemed it fit that Hon. Orubebe is not working in line with the aims for which the ministry was created which are: to formulate and coordinate policies for the development and security of the Niger Delta region and also to serve as the primary vehicle for the execution of government’s plans and programmes for rapid socio-economic development of the region amongst others.
The National President of the Niger Delta Peace Keeping Volunteer Front,Chief Lokiri A. Lawrence, noted that the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs was created out of the struggle of every Ijaw man and woman to see how the ministry can enumerate and lift the suffering of the Niger Delta people and drive in development. Chief Lawrence stated that Hon. Orubebe has failed every Niger Deltan in regards to performance and does not mean well for them.
He added that the sack of the minister will promote the agenda of transparency, non-corruption and the president’s strides to transform the Niger Delta.
He also said that one of the vital reasons they want the president to sack the minister is the East-West Road and other roads in the Niger Delta which are neither moving forward nor backward.
“Our money is siphoned into his account and nothing has been done up till this moment. People are dying on the East-West Road every day. In fact, the death of the president’s in-law, Madam Charity Oba, was as a result of the negligence of Hon. Orubebe.”
He made emphasis on how Hon. Orubebe; when he was chairman of Burutu LGA in Delta State, opposed the creation of another LGA from Burutu at the time Sagbama LGA in Bayelsa gave birth to Ekeremor LGA.
“The same man who opposed the creation of another LGA in the Niger Delta wants to contest for governorship position in 2015. How can we have him as governor?”
Chief Lawrence also said that there is a training centre in the Niger Delta region which was supposed to be meant for the repentant militants where they will be given the opportunity to exercise what they have studied abroad but has been abandoned.
He also appealed to the president to consider the Anioma people in Delta North to produce a governor in 2015.
The National President of the Niger Delta Believers’ Group, and also former Chairman of Ekeremor Rural Development Authority, Hon. Engema Jumbo, stated that they collaborated with other groups to make the appeal to the president because of the accumulated crimes and problems which the minister has caused in the Niger Delta.
