L-R: Organising Secretary, Forum of Non-Governmental Organisations in Nigeria, Kehinde Arowosegbe, National Chairman of the forum, Wole Badmus and the Public Relation Officer, Mr Umar Mohammed, at a news conference on the deregulation of the Downstream Petroleum Sector in Abuja, yesterday.

A Niger Delta group, the
Niger Delta Youth Coalition (NDYC), has advised the Federal Government to approach the military hunt for the Niger Delta avengers with caution for peaceful development of the oil-rich Niger Delta region in particular, and Nigeria in general.
National Co-ordinator of NDYC, Prince Emmanuel Ogba, who gave this advice Saturday in an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt said if the Federal Government did not apply caution, several innocent communities in the region would become victims of crime they knew nothing about.
Ogba who stated that he was not in support of the renewed attack on pipelines or oil and gas facilities in the region, said the best approach was to invite the Niger Delta Avengers for dialogue to enable the government have thorough understanding of the grievances of the group and design the way forward.
He explained that attack on the pipelines at this present period the economy of the nation was passing through difficult trials is one of the worst things to happen to the economy of Nigeria, and that the wisest approach was to negotiate and arrive at peace for the interest  of all.
“If the group goes on to sustain its threat of attacking the oil facilities, the nation would be worse off and the environment of  the Niger Delta, as well as the innocent communities that might be smoked up in the course of the military onslaught, would suffer more”.
The NDYC boss, however, appealed to the Niger Delta Avengers to suspend its attack and consider the fate of the poor people in these communities and submit itself to dialogue so that the world would know why they decided to renew attack when the Federal Government had, in its magnanimity given the militants amnesty.
The youth leader expressed belief that a military onslaught in the Niger Delta Communities will likely  be counter-productive.
He equally recommended that the Federal Government should hold a stakeholders meeting with oil community representatives, the oil companies and security agencies as to synergize to fight oil theft, vandalism and associated matters.

Chris Oluoh