NIGER DELTA: HRM Dakolo To FG Establish Federal Marine Safety Corps For Riverine People Of Niger Delta •Score Igali led PANDEF Exco high, passed implicit confidence on them

•••As PANDEF said next Chief Executive of NNPCL called from the South-South Geopolitical zone

By Matthias Ogbagah, Delta

DELTA – The Chairman of the Bayelsa State Council of Traditional Rulers, HRM King Bubaraye Dakolo, has called on the Federal Government of Nigeria to establish the Federal Marine Safety Corps for the Riverine People of Niger Delta.

The reverend monarch of Ijaw the nation made the call when national executive members of the Apex sociopolitical umbrella body of the Pan Niger Delta Development Forum, PANDEF, led by its national chairman, Amb Godknows Igali OON, paid a courtesy visit to the Bayelsa Traditional Council of Chiefs at Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

While urging the national executive members of PANDEF to develop a new strategy capable of bringing developments and preventing others from taking undue advantage of Niger Deltans, the reverend monarch emphasized that the Niger Delta region has fed Nigeria for over 60 years but that the Region has nothing to show for it.

He reminded PANDEF Exco of the proverbial parable nature of the porcupine, which is a smaller animal but can not be trampled upon by the lion and other bigger animals.

According to the national chairman, Igali, the visit was to inform the Royal fathers of the activities of the new executive members and to receive their royal blessings.

In his address, Amb Igali said that PANDEF belongs to the people of South-Southth Geopolitical zones and that the Exco is responsible for delivering the messages of the people of the Region.

While calling the n federal government to appoint somebody from the South-South Geopolitical zone to be the next Chief Executive of NNPCL, he noted that Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) can stand alone instead of merging it under the Ministry of Regional Development because it is an interventionist agency which has to do with derivation.

According to him, a memo has been addressed to President Ahmed BaloTinubu duly endorsed by the co-chairmen of the PANDEF board of trustees to sign into law without further delay the South Development Commission bill as passed by the National Assembly.

In a press release signed by the national publicity secretary of PANDEF, Olorogun (Sir) Obiuwevbi Ominimini Ph.D, Amb. Igalemphasised the unity PANDEF has brought to the region as though there are various languages, but the Niger Delta now speaks in one voice through PANDEF.

He saithe d Niger Delta region needed to invest in agriculture and likened the Niger Delta to the same soil in Vietnam, where the Vietnamese people have a huge investment in the cultivation of rice. He said that we, Niger Deltans, can feed ourselves.

He commended the people of the Niger Delta Region, describing them as no trouble maker and, urged companieoperatinges in the oil and gas sector in the region to respect the people of the region, whether offshore or onshore.