A prominent elder from the Niger Delta
region and former Minister of Information,
Chief Edwin Clark, insisted on Tuesday that
all the militants in the region had the
backing of their elders in whatever they
did.
Clark, who said this in an exclusive
interview with our correspondent in Abuja,
noted that the support given to the
militants could be seen in his personal
fraternity with them.
He also cautioned against calling the men
militants, saying they should be referred to
as freedom fighters.
Clark said that there might be no real peace
in the region until the Federal Government
developed the area to make it “real
habitable for the people.”
He said the region was still hopeful that the
government would come to its aid by
deploying huge resources to develop the
area.
He said, “We are very hopeful because of
the devastation, the environmental
degradation and the poverty in the area
and so on. The people will continue to
agitate and that is why we have the
conflict between the people you call the
militants and the government. To me, they
are not militants.
“They are freedom fighters. All that we are
saying is that, develop the area, bring
education to the people, provide electricity,
health and amenities for them. If these are
not done, it will be difficult to have peace in
the Niger Delta.
“Yes, they (the freedom fighters) have our
backing. When they came to see the
President, on several occasions after their
visits, they would come to see me here in
Abuja for discussion.
“They would come and brief me on the
outcome of their meetings with the
President. The elders are behind them, that
is the position.”
Clark wondered why the Federal
Government had refused to listen to
clamour of the people of the region to give
them 50 per cent derivation as being
practised during the First Republic.
He said the excuse of a former Head of
State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, was that he
needed the money to prosecute the war
and also rehabilitate, reconstruct and re-
integrate people after the war.
He said this was why Gowon refused to go
back to the 50 per cent derivation, which
was being practised before he became the
head of state.
Clark said, “He (Gowon) said he needed the
money to prosecute the war. But after the
war, what happened? Gowon still believed
that for him to achieve the no-victor-no
vanquish theory, he still needed the money.
“If you look at the two constitutions then, it
was stated that 50 per cent of the money
would go to the region that produced the
products that produced the money, 30 per
cent to the Federal Government, while the
remaining 20 per cent would be shared by
other regions including the region that
produced the products that earlier on got
20 per cent.
“I remember that Chief Obafemi Awolowo
said that it would be criminal for a region
that did not produce the product to benefit
from the money accruing from such
product in a true federation.
“He said the area that produced such
product should benefit from the money
and that was why 50 per cent of the
money got from Cocoa was paid to the
West; 50 per cent of the money from
groundnut was paid to the North and the
same thing to the East, while the balance
was shared among the regions and the
Federal Government.”
He said if the country could endorse and
practise true federalism, the clamour for
resource control would ease.
“So, the issue of resource control is still on,
but all we are asking for is that we should
have true federalism or fiscal federalism,
then the issue of resource control will die
down,” he added.
Meanwhile, Over 400 militants from the
creeks and riverside communities in Ovia
South-West and Ovia North-East Local
Government Areas of Edo State on Tuesday
took to the major streets of Benin to
protest their exclusion from the amnesty
programme of the Federal Government.
They, therefore, called on the relevant
authorities to come to their plight and
ensure their incorporation into the
amnesty deal as promised by the
government.
The militants, under the aegis of Ekpekuba
Organisation, and led by Mr. Felix Odou
a.ka. Lord Agbuke, said they had expressed
confidence in the ability of the Edo State
Governor, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, to assist
them to get attention to their plight.
But the state deputy governor, Dr. Pius
Odubu advised them to channel their
grievances in a paper through the state
government to Abuja since amnesty is a
federal matter.
He gave the state government’s promise to
assist the militants to achieve their
demands.
During the protest, militants came through
Ring Road and marched straight to the
Government House, demanding to see Mr.
Oshiomhole.
All the major roads and entry points leading
to the state capital were not left out by the
aggrieved militants.
According to them, the Federal Government
should properly document and integrate
them into the post- amnesty programme
because their members have been
languishing in the creeks after being
deceived in December last year to
surrender their arms at the Federal
Government Girls College, Benin.
Spokesman for the group, Mr. Lawson
Awomu, in an interview with our
correspondent said that since December 17,
his men had been left at Useh community
in the state without proper care by the
government.
He stated that their present plight smacked
of the earlier agreement they had with the
State Security Service on the processes for
the submission of arms by militants in the
Niger Delta.
He said, “Ever since December 17, there has
been this cat and mouse game of come
today, come tomorrow and we are tired.
Even the 400 persons in our camp, we
have been taking care of them since then.
They are in Useh.
“What we want now is this: these people
submitted their arms, register them into the
amnesty programme; that is what we are
saying. If they are not ready, they should
let us know they are not ready because
they said they were ready and that was
why we submitted our arms. Let them
register us into the amnesty programme
today.”
The deputy governor, however, told them
that they embraced the amnesty
programme when the time had elapsed and
advised them to follow the path of peace in
their agitation for a better welfare.