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Lawmakers
Lawmakers, Niger Delta
students warn northern govs
SEGUN
JAMES, Warri and CAJETAN MMUTA, Asaba
GROUND
SWELL of opposition to the suit instituted by 22 governors against the 13 per
cent derivation fund grew yesterday with Niger Delta students threatening fresh
crisis in the region.
Simultaneously, members of the
Delta State house of assembly also warned against any politicking over the
matter.
As though on cue with their
spiritual leaders, the students stated that they would go to any length to
resist the governors’ "moves to keep our people down perpetually."
The lawmakers condemned the
governors’ legal action as a ploy to downplay the quest for peace in the Niger
Delta region.
On Monday, in Warri, traditional
rulers of all nine oil mineral bearing states had warned that they were under
great pressure from their youths to allow them (youths) match wits with the
"conspirators."
Rising from a meeting on Monday,
the Traditional Rulers of Oil Mineral Producing Communities of Nigeria (TROMPCON),
said "the grand conspiracy by these complaining governors is indeed to take
our people for another ride, which we shall collectively resist."
Yesterday, the Federated Union of
Niger Delta Students (FUNDS) vowed that any further attempt to frustrate the
Niger Deltans would be decisively resisted.
In a statement signed by Messrs
C.E. Okeh, national secretary general; Destiny Okosun, national public relations
officer (PRO) and Ben Emuvoke, national mobilization officer, FUNDS made plain
that the Niger Delta region had sacrificed enough for the country and that any
attempt to make the people look like fools would be resisted.
According to the students, while
the complaining governors are tying to use legal impediments to frustrate the 13
per cent derivation fund, some of their people are also witchhunting Niger
Deltans from strategic national positions.
"In the interest of the
corporate co-existence of Nigeria, the northern governors and their cohorts from
Osun, Oyo and Ekiti states should as a matter of urgency, withdraw all pending
legal suits relating to the onshore/offshore oil dichotomy policy against the
Federal Government and the Niger Delta governors from the courts."
Besides, they warned that
"any further attempt to unjustly remove from office any indigene of the
Niger Delta origin shall be resisted by any means possible."
"We shall not fail in our
capacity to mobilize the entire Niger Delta indigenes across the country against
any further act or gang-up against the people of the region.
"We wish to warn that the
issues raised herein should not be treated with kid gloves as anybody that does
so, will be doing so at his or her own peril," the students said.
As for Delta State legislators
who commend the National Assembly and President Olusegun Obasanjo for the will
to make that law, the governors’ action amounts to gross insensitivity and an
attempt to ambush the hopes and aspirations of people of the Niger Delta region.
The lawmakers Tuesday rose in
stout condemnation of the action of the governors, insisting that it smacked of
a ploy to downplay the quest for peace and true fiscal federalism by the zone.
The house, in a unanimous motion
under matters of urgent public importance, moved by Deputy Speaker Mr. Pius
Ewerido, accused the 22 governors of connivance to ambush and truncate the hopes
of people of the region that gave much to the country.
It describe it as a dangerous
precedent to national unity and cohesion.
The legislators while appealing
to the conscience of the "aggrieved governors" posited that a rethink
became necessary because of the multiplier effect of the on-going legal debacle,
on the welfare of people of the Niger Delta region.
According to Mr. Ewerido
"our hopes are being truncated or are on the verge of being truncated; we
want to appeal to their (governors’) conscience for the interest of national
unity and cohesion because of the multiplier effect of the suit because at the
end of the day, we are a people that have suffered so much because of what we
have given to Nigeria and our people continue to insist that in spite of what
they (Niger Delta) have given Nigeria, Nigeria has not given a commensurate
measure back."
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