The meeting was jointly convened by elder statesman Chief Edwin Clark and Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State.
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“We must find a permanent solution to the various problems that we are facing in this country”, he said.
He probably has not because he has allowed his administration to be beset with too many petty rivalries, too many individuals jockeying for putative relevance and too many party chieftains from Niger Delta who don’t have the interests of the region at heart.
When he took office previous year President Buhari announced he wanted to progressively wind down a scheme which had offered amnesty to former members of armed groups in the Delta, notably the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).
“We have resolved to reject any idea of the peace of our times; we want the peace with honor this time around!”
The group said it would support a dialogue “to engage with the federal government of Nigeria, representatives from the home countries of all multinational oil corporations and neutral global mediators”.
“We are going to continue the observation of our unannounced cessation of hostilities in the Niger Delta against all interest of the Multinational oil Corporations”, it said.
It only said it wanted talks to focus on de-escalating the Niger Delta conflict.
Nigeria’s State Minister for Petroleum Resources Emmanuel Kachikwu said on August 12 that the government was trying to facilitate talks with several groups that have sabotaged export and production infrastructure in the region.
The Avengers has carried out attacks on oil and gas installations, devastating Nigeria’s output and revenue.
UNDEDSS had last month proffer a list of solutions to the crisis plaguing the Niger Delta region. “The practice of equitable fiscal federalism is a precondition for sustainable peace and development of our country”, it added.
The NDA, which has claimed responsibility for a spate of bombings of oil facilities in the Niger Delta, weekend, made a U-turn as it expressed readiness to dialogue with the Federal Government.
Okowa explained that though the grievances of the people were not out of place, but taking arms to destroy national assets sited in the region was condemnable.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has urged the federal government to ignore the outcome of the meeting of the Niger Delta Coastal States, which held in Warri on Friday.
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“We call on the federal government, especially President Buhari, to take advantage of this ceasefire to aggressively dialogue with the people of the region to address the issues affecting the region”.
