Niger Delta elders under the umbrella of Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to hasten assent to the South South Development Commission Bill now before him.
PANDEF also demanded the president to appoint the next Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) from the Niger Delta region.
It equally asked the federal government to revamp the existing ports in the Niger Delta states which occupy the larger portions of Nigeria’s coastline and have natural comparative advantage.
The demands were contained in a communique issued at the end of the forum’s BOT meeting in Abuja.
Reading the communique during a press conference on Monday, PANDEF national spokesman, Olorogun Obiuwevbi Ominimini, said, “The non-signing of this law could have a negative impact on the present state of peace which exists in the Niger Delta.”
He said, “We therefore view this withholding of assent as a grave oversight or error, capable of creating a feeling of exclusion and dejection on the part of the people of the South-South.”
“PANDEF BoT, therefore, calls on Mr President to remedy the oversight which has resulted in the delay to assent to this bill and sign it without delay as this is only fair and just manner of treating the South-South zone as bonafide citizens of this country who deserve not to be discriminated against,” he said.
The National Assembly had passed the bill for the establishment of a South South Development Commission, but the president is yet to assent to it.
It would be recalled that President Tinubu recently signed the North West Development Commission Bill into law.
(Daily Trust)
