Niger Delta leaders to meet Buhari, present template for peace

The  Niger Delta leaders, under the auspices of the Pan Niger Delta Peoples Congress, have planned a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in order to present  to the Presidency a new template for lasting peace and security in the region.

The PNDPC, a new body, reportedly mandated by the coalition of Niger Delta agitators, youths and people of the region to speak with the Federal Government on behalf of the region, noted that the meeting with the Presidency would hold in October this year.

The new group was given the nod to be speaking on behalf of the region after the Chief Edwin Clark-led Pan Niger Delta Forum was allegedly sacked by the coalition of militants in the region a few months ago.

At a meeting held at the palace of Ibedaowei of Opokuma Kingdom, King Okpoitari Diongoli, in Opokuma, Bayelsa State, on Monday, the National Chairman, PNDPC, His Royal Majesty Charles Ayemi-Botu, said the new body was put in place to fight for the people of the region through dialogue with the Presidency.

Ayemi-Botu, who is a former National  Chairman of Traditional Rulers of Oil Minerals Producing Communities of Nigeria and paramount ruler of Seimbiri Kingdom, said the body was out to give a new life to the people.

The PNDPC boss stated, ”This is an all-encompassing Niger Delta people, who in consonance with our sons and daughters, agitating in the creeks, come together to see how we can provide a lasting solution to the age-long marginalisation and problems of the region.

”This body is independent of any other body. We have set up a strategic planning committee and after a month, we are now ready with our own vision and mission. We have just gone through it, circulated it among our members and in our subsequent meeting, we are going to adopt it and the world will know what we stand for.

”So, our being here is to show that we are a different set of people from the region that has the interest of the people of the region at heart. And we will in this October meet with the Presidency to discuss and come out with what and what we are going to do to better the lots of the people of the region.

”We know the problems of the region and we are going to present these problems to the Presidency. We want to make the Niger Delta region like ‘Dubai of Nigeria’ because nature in its infinite mercy has bestowed on us the ‘black gold’ which is the economic live-wire of the country.