Date Published: 05/0509

Military approach to Niger Delta crisis obsolete, says group

THE Central Organising Committee of the Niger Delta Youth Parliament (NDYP) has taken on the Nigerian Armed Forces, claiming that their security approach to the up-rising in the oil and gas region, is obsolete.

''Security approach to a conflict situation in resource endowed regions is no longer fashionable. Even the United States under the Barack Obama Presidency has resorted to dialogue in dealing with their perceiced adversaries'', says Mr. Imoh Okoko, Chair of the organising committee.

The youth group was reacting to a recent report that fear has gripped miltant camps in the Niger Delta following an alleged fresh offfensive by the Joint Task Force's (JTF), Operation Restore Hope. 

Superior security operatives in the oil region confirmed yesterday that the special security outfit has mapped out plans to take on miltants camps one after the other in a renewed bid to dislodge the warlords and  restore law and order in the oil-bearing communities in the coastal areas.

There have been raids by the JTF in Bayelsa, Detla and Rivers states in the past two weeks that allegedly resulted in some heavy casualties on both sides.

Mr. Wellman Warri, Secretary of the youth parliament organising committee, had this to say in an interview with our correspondent on telephone yesterday, ''JTF's onslaught against suspected militants and civilian population in the coastal communities of the Niger Delta continues to take a terrible toll''.

According to Mr. Warri, ''the relentless raids by the JTF is drastically worsening already dire conditions in the oil-bearing communities''.

In the mean time, the youth group has expressed their solidarity with activists of the Niger Delta as indigenous peoples living in a region that is the most vulnerable to the impacts and root causes of climate change.

''We reaffirm the unbreakable and sacred connection between land, air, water, oceans, forests, sea ice, plants, animals and our human communities as the material and spiritual basis for our existence. We are deeply alarmed by the accelerating environmental devastation brought about by unsustainable development. We are experiencing profound and disproportionate adverse impacts on our cultures, human and environmental health, human rights, well-being, traditional livelihoods, food systems and food sovereignty, local infrastructure, economic viability, and our very survival as indigenous peoples'', the group said.

According to them, ''the Niger Delta today is not only in a period of climate change, but in climate crisis. We therefore insist on an immediate end to the destruction and desecration of the elements of life in the oil-bearing communities by the coalition of the oil companies and the military''.

Continuing, they said the military does not appear to know that the indigenous peoples of the Niger Delta have a vital role to defend and heal their environment by any means necessary.

''We uphold that the inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples, affirmed by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), must be fully respected in all decision-making processes and activities related to oil exploration and production as well as climate change in Nigeria.