Niger Delta Leaders Dismiss Planned Summit

It’s not just the climate summit that looks like it will be a failure. Leaders from the Niger Delta have dismissed the proposed summit on the region by the Federal Government, describing it as a “jamboree.”
They have also warned President Umaru Yar’Adua about the “imminent collapse” of his peace programme for the region because foreign oil companies are still undertaking discriminatory recruitment programmes against the people of the region.
But Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, said “We are asking the President to visit the area to see things for himself, how the people sit on water and they have no water to drink; no electricity; no schools. Our children are still sitting on the floor.”
“The Federal Government should now institute an inquiry into the activities of the oil companies to find out how many people of the Niger Delta are employed in these oil companies and those who have been employed outside the Niger Delta.
He continued: “This situation, we will no longer accept and so we are calling on Shell in particular, which has started this programme of eliminating people from the Niger Delta to halt their policy immediately, otherwise they will face the consequences that will be very unpleasant to everybody.”
Once again, the people of the Niger Delta blame Shell for their ills…