The Niger Delta Delta Peoples Volunteers Force (NDPVF) led by Mujahid Dokubo-Asari has said that the sustenance of the peace accord it entered into with President Olusegun Obasanjo would be determined by the prompt and proactive response of the to the core issues of resource control and self determination of the Ijaws.
The group had threatened to attack oil facilities in the Niger Delta unless the Nigerian military halted its offensive against its camps sometime last month thereby causing serious panic not only in the nation oil industry but also the international community especially among countries with massive investments in the region.
Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) was compelled to evacuate its personnel it described as non essential staff from two of its facilities at Ekuleama and Soku area of Rivers state before tension was doused following the peace deal between the NDPVF and the Federal Government on the eve of the nation’s independence anniversary.
In a statement made available to newsmen in Yenagoa, the NDPVF described as baseless the rumours making the round in the oil and gas rich region that its leaders have been bought over by the presidency to scuttle the Ijaw struggle for resource control and self determination.
According to the statement jointly signed by Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, British Columbus Ebipadei and Kime Engozu, leader, Commander and spokesman respectively, the group stated, “we in the supreme and central command after reviewing the trend of events vis a vis the effort by the Nigerian state to broker peace in the Ijaw nation have resolved to stand by the resolution of the peace accord arrived with President Olusegun Obasanjo and wish to inform the global community that the sustenance of the peace accord could only be determined by the Nigerian state’s prompt and proactive response to the core issues of resource control and self determination of the Ijaws”.
.”We urge all Ijaws at home and in the diaspora to be keenly alert of the political and economic dimensions of the struggle to avoid falling prey to political swindlers.”
The statement continued, “the NDPVF is amazed at the unfounded rumour in the Niger Delta that the President of the Nigerian state has thrown down carrot in form of millions of naira to our leaders in order to abandon the struggle which we, in strongest terms, condemn the false and ill fated information and assure the Ijaw nation that we are faithfully and positively on course.”
