Ex Militants Beg Oil Firms To Return To Niger Delta Region

With militancy coming to an end in the Niger Delta Region, some ex-agitators have appealed to companies that left the region to return, with the promise of uninterrupted peace.

The call was made during a regional peace summit held in Yenogoa the Bayelsa state capital, to sensitize people on the need to advance the peace currently being enjoyed in the region.

The ex-agitators called on interventionist agencies to work together to sustain the peace and ensure the development of the region while also condemning the proliferation of illegal refineries and lamenting its adverse effects on the region’s development.

Speaking at the event, Pastor Nature Dumale Kieghe, a former warlord said as ex-agitators, who keyed into the vision of the Interim Administrator, Presidential Amnesty Programme Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd), they had resolved to work for a new and better Niger Delta.

According to him, “It is important to sensitize our people to a peaceful Niger Delta and create a friendly environment that will attract development, Multinational companies, and other foreign investors to the region.

“We, who once carried guns, are nowhere to preach the message of peace to our people in the region. Peace is the only way we can have the developed environment that we dream of. Peace is the only way to attract the multinationals, investors and also be gainfully employed”.

Kieghe insists that peace remained a vital tool to attract investors to the region which would, in turn, create business and job opportunities for the people.

“Companies that have left the Niger Delta because of insecurity need to return; this is the purpose for sensitization. We are blessed with an environment that is supposed to prosper us; we can only enjoy our natural resources if there is a peaceful environment.”

The Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the Presidential Amnesty office, could hasten the needed development of the region of giving the needed support, he said.

The sensitization programme commenced in Bayelsa State with 150 Niger Delta youths in attendance and would be held across the nine states of the region to create adequate awareness.