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Nigeria: Reps to Set Up AD-Hoc Committee On Niger Delta Crisis
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Daily Trust (Abuja)
25 July 2008
Posted to the web 25 July 2008
Tashikalmah Hallah & Francis Okeke
Worried by the lingering crisis in the Niger Delta region, the House of Representatives yesterday resolved to constitute a special ad-hoc committee to conduct public hearing on the crisis.
The public hearing they said would offer stakeholders opportunity to proffer ideas on how best to resolve the crisis.
Although members of the committee were not constituted by the Speaker, debate on the motion sponsored by Rep Andrew Uchendu (PDP, Rivers state) and 92 others witnessed immotional speeches by lawmakers from the North querying the amount of funds channelled into the troubled area.
However, they agreed that the crisis in the Delta region is a time bomb for the country and urgent step needs to be taken by the parliament to resolve the problem.
The MPs also committed the 2008 Appropriation Amendment Act to the committees on Appropriation and Finance after it has passed the second reading.
Rep Andrew Uchendu said people in the Niger Delta region are 'peace loving and law abiding citizens' but regretted the spate of hostage taking, oil bunkering, pipeline vandalisation and youth restiveness among others.
According to him the people in the region condemns "any act of criminality and hostage taking as a form of expressing anger, frustration, and drawing attention to this national problem". He however, called on the people to exercise more restraints in their struggle for equity, fairness and justice.
Mohammed Ali Ndume, Minority leader said the problem in the Niger Delta has become global leading to foreign countries to place travel ban on their citizens to the area.
The problem in the Niger Delta said Ndume has more of criminal tendency than struggle for justice and equity adding that a cartel of oil bunkerers are fanning the crisis to the detriment of the country.
"The crisis is our crisis; the Niger Delta is part of the country. But, my worry is about the funds channelled into the area. What has happened to the funds sent to the region? I think we need to know about how these funds are utilised.
"Mr Speaker my Honourable colleagues, a state in the Niger Delta region takes what the entire states in the North East are being given from the federation account".
Rep Bala Ibn Na'Allah (PDP, Kebbi State), Rabe Nasir (PDP, Katsina) and Dr Mohammed Sani Abdul (ANPP, Bauchi) concurred to the Minority leaders' submission with Nasir saying that as a former security officer who had worked in the region he was aware of the funds released into the region.
"If the funds released to the region were judiciously utilised there would have been no problem in the area. Mr Speaker, the government has come up with different programmes aimed at developing the area. First we have OMPADEC, and then we now have the NNDC.
"The question still remains, what has happened to the funds given to NNDC for the development of the region, Mr Speaker there is the need to investigate the activities of the NDDC", he added.
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Dr Mohammed Sani Abdul cautioned the government over military action in the Niger Delta but warned that "We must separate agitation for equity and justice to gangsterism and criminality. Militarisation and gansterism in the Niger Delta should be stopped", he added.
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