$40bn have been spent on Niger Delta in 12 years without result – Kachikwu

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu has disclosed that more than $40 billion had been dolled out to the Niger Delta region in the past 12 years through various intervention agencies, regretting however, that there was nothing on ground to justify such amount.

Kachikwu, who spoke yesterday at a meeting held at PTI Conference Centre in Warri, Delta State involving prominent leaders from the coastal states, said the $40 billion came mainly from oil companies, Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, 13% derivation and other intervention funds.

While noting that the state of infrastructure is disappointing despite the huge effort to alleviate the infrastructural deficit in the Niger Delta, he called for an audit of money so far expended in the region to know what exactly went wrong to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

According to him, “I’ve been to the creeks myself and discovered that there was no meaningful development of the riverine communities as expected by the federal government despite the huge amount disbursed to the region.

“I think we need an audit because it will not be wise to have agitation of this kind in circle after each agitation will come back again to demand for the same thing when intervention funds had made no impact on the lives of the ordinary people.”

The minister also used the forum to assure leaders of the zone that President Muhammadu Buhari was not thinking of using the military to resolve the crisis in the region.

Instead, he maintained that the President was desirous of using dialogue to find a lasting solution to the problem.

The minister urged leaders in the region to prevail on their youths to allow peace to reign, noting that no meaningful development can take place in an atmosphere of violence.

He told the Niger Delta leaders that the federal government was committed to the development of the region, promising to come out soon with short and long term plans in that direction.

They are Intimidated by my Rising Profile –Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan has again denied allegations that he is sponsoring the Niger Delta Avengers.

He added that the allegation was being sponsored by those who were intimidated by his rising profile in Nigeria and abroad.

On Thursday, in a statement by his spokesman, Ikechukwu Eze, the former President said this.

There had been publications that the current Federal Government had begun probing Jonathan over alleged link to the Niger Delta Avengers.

However, the statement said, “It is sad that the publications wore the cloak of deceit from the same misguided characters that are hell-bent on pulling down the former President despite his clear record of diligent service to his country and long-standing commitment to the good of the society.

“There is no doubt that there exists such people who may have scores to settle with the former President, but are now feeling frustrated by the fact that his national and international profiles have continued to rise despite their recourse to endless muck-raking character assassination. Such people will stop at nothing to continue to throw obstacles, albeit futilely, on his path.

“We are aware that the same people approached other well-meaning newspapers with the same false information, but they were wise to turn it down on account of its absurdity.”

Jonathan advised the media to be professional and do more of investigative reporting instead of making reference to allegations of aggrieved militants.

He said no responsible security agency would release such falsehood to the press.

The statement added, “From what we know about intelligence gathering, there is no responsible government agency that would rush, as claimed in the newspaper stories, to adopt the accusations of a questionable rebellious organisation as its own findings, without applying the professional processes of rigour and due diligence.

“Our media houses should be careful not to make the country a laughing stock by being hoodwinked into passing off the perverted voices of irritant groups as that of our well-respected official and security authorities.”

The ex-President said newspapers promoting spurious allegations against him were toying with libel and destroying the image of Nigeria.

“Apart from toying with the serious issue of libel, those newspapers lending themselves to be cheaply used by miscreants are also doing gross disservice to our collective good and the image of the country,” he said.