THE GUARDIAN

The United Niger Delta Energy Development Security Strategy (UNDEDSS) has said no individual or group can coerce the Niger Delta region into Biafra, O’dua Republic or any other secessionist group within and outside the country.

In a communiqué issued after a virtual meeting yesterday, Executive Secretary of UNDEDSS, Tony Uranta, said only the Chief Edwin Clark-led Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) could convene an extraordinary meeting to decide whether the region would support secession from Nigeria or be annexed by any section.

The group, therefore, warned that those who have already annexed the Niger Delta waters and lands into any separatist group other than Nigeria should be considered to be against the South-South, until an extraordinary meeting of PANDEF declared otherwise.

“When necessary, the Niger Delta will be free to decide if it wants to continue to be part of Nigeria or not and the whole world will know of its decision either way.

“The attempt to steal the Niger Delta’s ancestral lands and waters through the National Water Resources Amendments Bill before the National Assembly must stop immediately or such action shall be seen as an act of war by Nigerian politicians, including Niger Delta lawmakers and politicians against the country and especially the Niger Delta region,” the communiqué reads.

UNDEDSS also canvassed immediate end to the looting of South-South resources, which it said, should begin with extermination of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources’ proposed N700b for the Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of the Port Harcourt Refinery.

“This is a bid to loot Niger Delta money, just as the past TAMs have been unmonitored conduits for wanton looting by different ministers of petroleum, individuals and organisations in partnership with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC),” he added.