Seventeen days after stakeholders on the aegis of Pan-Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, made a 16- point demand on the Federal Government as a panacea for peace in the Niger Delta region, another group has also forwarded another list of demands to the government.
The Niger Delta People’s Congress, NDPC, which paraded many PANDEF members as its members, also asked the Federal Government to release all detained ethnic agitators in custody and ensure the quick implementation of fiscal federalism to enable regions control their resources and pay an agreed royalty to the Federal Government. They also demanded for the creation of 6,000 jobs from the major oil companies in the zone and full demilitarization of Niger Delta villages among other demands. Submitting the demands as conditions for lasting peace in the region, the group numbering about 38 persons led by King Afred Diete Spiff, the Amanayabo of Twon Brass, Bayelsa State, met behind closed doors with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, yesterday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where they made their position clear. A copy of the presentation at the meeting, signed by NDPC Secretary, Professor Benjamin Okaba, demanded as follows:
"This delegation is not only to re-affirm the plausible submissions made earlier but to also prioritize these concerns and place them in clearer perspectives. This is premised on our objective assessment of the anxieties, sentiments and myriads of reactions from the key drivers and players in the crises across and outside the region that immediately trailed the meetings. We are very confident that our modest contributions as articulated below would constitute the panacea to the age long crises in the Niger Delta Region.
"The fundamental concern is political reconstruction and fiscal federalism. We are persuaded to uphold that the nation practices true federalism with legitimate and acceptable division of power among the constituents (the centre and regions) and the principle and practice of ownership and management of resources by the constituents. The derivation principal should allow the different units annex and control their resources and pay appropriate and agreed tax to the centre. “Demilitarization and peace/confidence building: we are persuaded to request the Federal Government to stop further invasion of the region under any guise; release unconditionally all freedom fighters from detention and deploy political solution to the issues surrounding the leadership of the agitators/freedom fighters and cause multinational co-operations not only to relocate their operational bases to the region but more significantly create a minimum of 6,000 jobs for the teeming population of unemployed and restive youths of the region."