Date Published: 09/02/09

Uduaghan blames Niger Delta Crisis, bunkering on foreigners

Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan has accused foreign countries and staffers of oil companies operating in the Niger Delta area of aiding criminals’ involvement in oil bunkering in the region.

This is even as former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador Walter Carrington traces the Niger Delta problems to what he described as the failure of successive government to use fair portion of what of the wealth it derive from the region to develop the area.

Both leaders spoke in New York at the formal launching of the Delta Diaspora Direct, D3, an initiative of the Delta State Government geared towards involving Deltans in Diaspora in the development of the state.

Governor Uduaghan alleged that the crisis in Niger Delta is being sustained and fanned by funds realized from foreigners who patronize bunkered oil from the region.

According to the Governor all the illegal arms being used by criminals in the region are foreign made, supplied by foreign collaborators of the criminals in Niger Delta.

“The guns in Niger Delta are not produced in Nigeria, they are produced abroad.”

He charged on the international community and other relevant bodies to investigate the destination of all bunkered crude oil from the Niger Delta region as a first step to ending oil bunkering and by extension the crisis in the region.

Governor Uduaghan also urged the National Assembly to consider the aspect of the Petroleum Bill which would provide royalties to host communities of oil companies.

According to him “if the royalties are paid and the communities are also part of the oil companies, the crisis in the area would be very minimal if not eliminated.”

The Governor however promised to leave a legacy where all the different ethnic groups are united for the common goal of an accelerated and meaningful development of Delta State where ethnic distrust is reduced to the minimum.

However, former U.S Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador Carrington blamed the dearth of basic infrastructure in the Niger Delta on the failure of successive government.

Carrington particularly took a swipe on the military for bastardising the concept of true federalism in Nigeria.

“It would seem to me clear that the underlying source of discontent in the region is the failure of successive national government to use a fair portion of the wealth it extracts to benefit the area which produces it.”

He added “the current crisis whose origins which can be traced back to the failings of a federal system to deal with the marginalization which so many citizens of the oil producing region feel.”