The Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has said the interest of the South was to ensure that the country became an egalitarian nation where everyone was treated equally.
The National Publicity Secretary of PANDEF, Hon Ken Robinson, who said this in Port Harcourt, yesterday, described as unfortunate the claim by ACF that the south was trying to trigger war in the nation.
Robinson maintained that the northern leaders were inconsistent with their view about the nation, regretting that ACF was shield the misdeed of the criminal elements from the North.
He said, “It is unfortunate that the ACF is not consistent. Few days ago I heard they said they were trying to reach out for dialogue and then the next day they are saying the southerners are trying to trigger war, how?
“We are insisting that some wrongs and attitude that are not acceptable should stop. What the South is asking for is that we have to be a country let’s be a country.
“Let’s be a country where everybody is treated as citizen of the nation. Not a situation where some people are super citizens and others lesser citizens that is the attitude we see every day.
“People who carry guns, invade farms and destroy livelihoods molest women, kill people are treated as super humans, and then the southerners are saying no and resisting that kind of attitude and the North begin to brand southerners as people who threaten people for war.
“No one is afraid of war. If that is what they want let it be so. All we are saying is that Nigeria is no longer a country as it is.
“There is so much injustice and discrimination. The Muhammadu Buhari administration has worsened the whole thing. This is glaring in appointment and project execution and all of that. Let there be a change in attitude that is all we are saying. Let us have an egalitarian nation where everybody will be treated equally.
“Where we produce resources and we get little. You plunder our resources. The NNPC has become as some have said it Northern Petroleum Corporation, it has become a grazing ground for a section of the country with the exclusion of those whose land the industries are being operated and you say this is asking for war. This is ridiculous!
“That is a very irresponsible statement. We are patriots; that is what we are. We have contributed so much for the development and sustenance the country. Nobody will build his house and would want to destroy it, but if you think that I will build a house and you would want me to leave it and become a tenant in the house that I built, you are the one looking for war.”