N'delta Militants Might Return To The Creeks, Clark Warns Buhari

• Urges FG to sustain dialogue

A critical stakeholder in the Ijaw nation and leader of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief E.K. Clark has warned that Niger Delta militias might return to the creeks and resume hostilities if the federal government holds out too long on the issue of dialogue with the agitators.

According to Clark, “It is getting late for President Muhammadu Buhari and the federal government on the issue of dialogue with the aggrieved Niger Delta agitators who have stopped the bombing of pipelines and other oil facilities.

“If the dialogue fails to commence as soon as possible, the boys may feel betrayed and go back to the creeks and resume hostilities.

“I saw the president’s media man (Femi Adesina) claiming that we are not one and not united, and that the federal government was still looking for people to negotiate with.

“That was a great insult to us. I was in government before he was born. On July 30, 2016, I summoned a meeting of all Ijaw leaders and traditional rulers to my house in Warri and the Deputy Governor of Delta State was in attendance.

“After that first meeting, I decided to call for another one with paid adverts in national dailies, since it was not only the Ijaws that have oil and gas.”

The Ijaw leader added that at that meeting, which was held at the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) Effurun, with over 500 delegates in attendance, the Ijaw leaders advised the agitators to lay down their arms and stop the destruction and vandalism of oil and gas facilities.

Clark added that after the meeting, the “boys in the creeks” quickly responded and mandated him to negotiate on their behalf, stating that on November 1, 2016, he led a delegation comprising traditional rulers, leaders, women and youth leaders from the Niger Delta to the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where they presented to the federal government a 16-point demand for dialogue and negotiations.

“Yet, this government is saying that it does not know whom to negotiate with. We are ready to negotiate, the earlier the better. Therefore we are using this opportunity of you coming to see me, to tell the federal government that it’s getting too late. We are Nigerians and we are nationalists,” the Ijaw leader warned