… calls for more projects in Itsekiri land

By Our Correspondent

A Warri based pressure, the Itsekiri Liberation Group, ILG, has suspended the 14-day ultimatum issued to the federal Government and the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio to immediately constitute the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, just as it requested that one of their own be made the Managing Director or the Board Chairman.

The group that further sued for peace in Warri kingdom and the entire Niger Delta region also demanded that all on-going projects in Itsekiri land be adequately funded, maintaining that these minimum demands is as a result of the Itsekiris produces the highest quantum of oil and gas in Edo and Delta states respectively.

In a statement signed by the Chairman of Itsekiri Liberation Group (ILG), Comrade Oris Mone and its Secretary Comrade Ajofotan Omagbemi, they said the decision to suspend the 14-days ultimatum was as a result of wide consultations with the Regent of Warri Kingdom, leadership of the Itsekiri National Youths Council, INYC, and General Smart Omola a.k.a Gentle Lion following the meeting held between Senator Godswill Akpabio, the Olu-of Warri designate, and the Regent of Warri Kingdom, Prince Emmanuel Okotie-Eboh.

The ILG had on May 29, 2021 issued the ultimatum to the FG to constitute a substantive board for the NDDC noting that “notwithstanding the suspension of the ultimatum their demands still stands” insisting that Itsekiris should be accommodated in the recently employed staff of the Commission, skills acquisition and other empowerment programs of the NDDC.

While frowning at the shoddy and substandard jobs being executed by contractors’ handlings such jobs “we can no longer continue to look the other way while huge sums of money being spent by the FG are being fretted away for parochial interest”, the ILG stated.

The ILG warned that the shenanigans called Interim Management or Sole administrator ship should never be repeated in the NDDC, noting that nobody should take the peaceful disposition of the Itsekiri people for granted anymore.