The Center for Peace and Environmental Justice, CEPEJ, a Niger Delta based NGO, has urged the Niger Delta Avengers to stop further destruction of the deteriorated environment.
The Center believes that although it is important to peacefully agitate for the development of the region, it is wrong to destroy the environment in the process because it takes a long time to remediate a destroyed environment.
The NGO advises the militant group to have a re-think, as it cannot continue to use Niger Delta communities and Kingdoms as a war front to the detriment of the environment, image and people of the region. In a statement signed by the National Coordinator of CEPEJ, Comrade Sheriff Mulade, the NGO noted that Gbaramatu communities are not at war with the Federal Government and security agencies. The Center, therefore, appeals to relevant authorities to implore intelligent in fishing out the culprits and bring them to book.
The NGO also advises the Niger Delta Avengers to sheath their swords and bring their grievances forward for dialogue as the issue of neglect is a regional matter and not peculiar to the group.
The Center frowns at a situation where militants in the Niger Delta region use the communities and Kingdom as sacrifices for development, accentuated by loss of lives and environmental degradation, but development projects are hardly sited in the Kingdom. It’s unfortunate that the only Federal present, the Nigeria Maritime University and the EPZ projects are politically and systematically suspended due to insecurity and battered environment, in spite of the huge contribution of the communities to the nation.
While appealing to the Niger Delta Avengers to embrace dialogue as the best option toward resolving the issues at stake, CEPEJ enjoins all aggrieved Nigerians to be patient with President Muhammadu Buhari as the he takes bold step to embark on clean up exercise at the Niger Delta beginning from Ogoni land on June 2nd 2016 while he tactically finds lasting solutions to the Nation numerous problems.
