{"id":9375,"date":"2016-06-03T20:55:04","date_gmt":"2016-06-03T20:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=9375"},"modified":"2016-06-03T20:55:04","modified_gmt":"2016-06-03T20:55:04","slug":"niger-delta-avengers-britain-cautions-buhari-on-use-of-military-option","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=9375","title":{"rendered":"Niger Delta Avengers: Britain cautions Buhari on use of military option"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NG-[C:G.Comp,B:Hp,Wk:2116,Dim:336X280]:Laptops\"
\n<\/a><\/code><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The British High Commissioner to
\nNigeria, His Excellency, Paul Arkwright,
\nyesterday, in Abeokuta Ogun state capital
\ncautioned the Federal Government over military
\noption as a measure to tackle the resurgence of
\nmilitancy and other criminality in the Oil – rich
\nNiger Delta region.
\nThe High British High Commissioner stated this
\nduring an interview in Abeokuta, the Ogun state
\ncapital, shortly after his courtesy visit to the
\nAlake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo.
\nArkwright who arrived the Ake Palace at 11am
\nwas accompanied by political Counsellor, Ben
\nLlewellyn-Jones, and former Secretary-General
\nof the Commonwealth, and Dr Emeka Anyaoku,
\nalso advocated for dialogue as part of a
\ncomprehensive approach that should be
\nadopted by Nigerian government to address the
\nsituation, adding that force alone may not bring
\nabout a lasting solution to the Niger Delta
\nissue.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

Niger Delta Avengers(NDA), an armed militant
\ngroup, and other violent youth organisations
\nhave been launching violent attacks on oil and
\ngas facilities in the Niger Delta area.
\nThis action has forced the Federal Government
\nto respond by deploying troops to the area’s
\ncreeks to stop the alleged destruction of
\nnational economic assets and spate of
\nsabotage being perpetrated there by the
\nregion’s restive youths.
\nWhile speaking with newsmen, Arkwright said
\nthough, there is the need to protect the
\ninvestments, not just the British companies and
\ninternational companies operating there, but
\nalso Nigerian companies from acts of
\ncriminality going – on in the region, the military
\nshould tread softly.
\nHe noted that the Britain is already talking to
\nNigerian government and its authorities on
\nneed to take a “comprehensive approach” and
\nnot to rely solely on military option as solution
\nto the Niger Delta militants.
\nAccording to him, it is important that the
\nNigerian government explore ways to engage
\nthe communities in the area, understand the
\ngrievances of the people and also ensured that
\nthe environmental damage is cleaned up.
\nHe also suggested that same option should be
\napplied to conclude the fight against Boko
\nharam terrorists in the North East of the country
\nas being canvassed ever since by Britain.
\n“We need to protect the investment there, not
\njust British companies, international companies
\nbut Nigerian companies as well.
\n“We are talking to Nigerian authorities about
\nthat, we need to have what we called a
\ncomprehensive approach to this, in other words
\nwe need to have dialogue and we need to
\nengage the communities down there.
\n“We need to understand the grievances of the
\npeople down there, we need to ensure the
\nenvironmental damage is cleaned up.
\n“We need to protect the investment there, not
\njust British companies, international companies
\nbut Nigerian companies as well.
\n“When there is criminal activity, (it) is right that
\nthe government should take proactive action
\nagainst that criminal activity, we strongly
\nsupport them but we don’t think military
\nsolution alone is the final solution to handle
\nissues in Niger Delta.
\n“And to handle Boko Haram in the North, so we
\nneed comprehensive approach and that is what
\nwe have been talking to the Nigerian
\ngovernment about.
\n“I was very encouraged to hear Hon Minister Ike
\nChukwu say about the need for dialogue and we
\nare certainly looking to see what we can do to
\nhelp in dialogue and bring peaceful outcome to
\nwhat you say is economic threat to this
\ncountry.”
\nWhile speaking on the looted fund stashed in
\nBritish banks, the British High Commissioner
\nassured that Britain is committed to her
\nintention to return all looted funds from Nigeria
\nback to the country.
\nHe said his country would follow the rule of law
\nand also wait for the judiciary to take a
\ndecision on the matter before the loots could be
\nre – directed to Nigeria, its “rightful place.”
\nHe said: “President Mohammadu Buhari make
\nthe same point when he was in London for Anti
\nCorruption summit which my Prime Minister
\nsetup we need international action to fight
\ncorruption.
\n“We need all the looted funds around the world,
\nincluding United Kingdom to return to rightful
\nplace which is Nigeria, United Kingdom is doing
\neverything we can to ensure that those funds
\nare return to Nigeria.
\n“We have no interest, no intention of keeping
\nthe money, we want it to go back to Nigeria,
\nfull stop.The issues is that you will understand
\nthat United Kingdom just like Nigeria, is a
\ncountry which respect the rule of law.
\n“We have independent judicial process, that
\njudicial process need to run it course and we
\nare doing what we can to help accelerate the
\nreturn of the funds, if there are delays and
\nissues surrounding that, these are delays
\nrelated to judicial process.
\n” And have nothing to do with political will of
\nthe British government which my Prime
\nMinister has made it clear and as i have said in
\nthe past Umited Kingdom wishes that the funds
\nis return as soon as possible.”
\nMeanwhile, the Alake and Paramount ruler of
\nEgbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo has called for
\nthe resuscitation of the British Council Library in
\nhis domain as part of contribution of the United
\nKingdom educational development in the area.
\nThe traditional ruler recalled that the Library
\nwhich has been in the town, has contributed
\nimmensely to the reading and learning culture
\namong the young and the old.
\nHe however, lamented that the extinction of the
\nlibrary had brought education development
\nbackwards.
\nHe said “We want to request that as you go
\nback, the British Council Library be restored so
\nthat the young one can learn more about the
\nworld.
\nThe monarch recalled that there had been an
\naged long relationship between Egba and the
\nBritish, which was dated back to 1843, through
\nHenry Townsend, “who brought a new Bible in
\n1904, after the first one got burnt. It was that
\nperiod that we “Treaty of Friendship” by Egba
\nUnited Government.
\nOba Adedotun added “in 1906, the British
\nfacilitated Electricity supply into Egba and it
\nalso included four key areas of monarchical
\nform of government, education (western),
\nmilitary and cultural link.
\n“During the military, we have some friends
\nincluding France, British who gave us the
\nwherewithal and logistic supports to win the
\nbattle in 1830. In education, you allowed us to
\nproduce the first medical doctor and engineer.”\"buhari<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/code><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, His Excellency, Paul Arkwright, yesterday, in Abeokuta Ogun state capital cautioned the Federal Government over military option as a measure to tackle the resurgence of militancy and other criminality in the Oil – rich Niger Delta region. The High British High Commissioner stated this during an interview in Abeokuta, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[23],"tags":[2084,1462,2085,2083],"class_list":["post-9375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news","tag-emeka-anyaoku","tag-niger-delta-avengers","tag-oba-adedotun-gbadebo","tag-paul-arkwright"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/buhari-and-cameron.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-2rd","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9375"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9376,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9375\/revisions\/9376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}