Chief Edwin Kaigbodo Clark, leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum has fired a warning to the Federal government of Nigeria over its Lukewarmness towards negotiating with stakeholders in the Niger Delta region.
Clark advised the government to take the situation with a sense of urgency. He urged the FG to setup a negotiation team to engage in talks with stakeholders in the region before August 1st, 2017. He disclosed that he has been under immense pressure over the ‘sluggishness’ in negotiation proceedings adding that since November 1, 2016, meeting, PANDEF has not met with the federal government.
He also criticised the government’s actions towards the construction of the Maritime University, Okerekoko, Delta State, which Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, had stated would soon be launched.
He said;
“They said the school will resume this year, July is almost ending, when will the staff be employed, what is the situation? So, between now and August 1, we are asking Mr President to name a team and we will name our team because the boys are impatient and they have been disturbing me with telephone messages and some of them have even issued notices to disown us.
We cannot be in a situation where the Federal Government is not listening to us, our boys will soon lose confidence in us and we cannot carry on with that situation. So we are asking the acting president to open discussion with us.”
