D3 LAUNCHING: UDUAGHAN IN NEW YORK, BLAMES NIGER DELTA CRISIS, ILLEGAL OIL BUNKERING ON FOREIGNERS

September 4, 2009

FROM LEFT, GOVERNOR EMMANUEL UDUAGHAN, FORMER US AMBASSADOR TO NIGERIA, WALTER CARRINGTON AND WIFE, DR. ARESE CARRINGTON DURING THE LAUNCHING OF DELTA DIASPORA DIRECT (D3) AT THE UNITED NATIONS PLAZA IN NEW YORK.

Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan has accused foreign countries and staffers of oil companies operating in the Niger Delta area of aiding criminals’ involvement in oil bunkering in the region.
This is even as former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador Walter Carrington traces the Niger Delta problems to what he described as the failure of successive governments to use fair portion of the wealth it derive from the region to develop the area.
Governor Uduaghan and Ambassador Carrington spoke in New York at the formal launching of the Delta Diaspora Direct, D3, an initiative of the Delta State Government geared towards involving Deltans in Diaspora in the development of the state.
Governor Uduaghan said that the crisis in Niger Delta is being sustained and fanned by funds realized from foreigners who patronize illegally bunkered oil from the region.
According to the Governor all the illegal arms being used by criminals in the region are foreign made, supplied by foreign collaborators of the criminals in Niger Delta.
“The guns in the Niger Delta are not produced in Nigeria, they are produced abroad.”
He charged on the international community and other relevant bodies to investigate the destination of all bunkered crude oil from the Niger Delta region as a first step to ending oil bunkering and by extension the crisis in the region.
Governor Uduaghan also urged the National Assembly to consider the aspect of the Petroleum Bill which would provide royalties to host communities of oil companies.
According to him “if the royalties are paid and the communities are also part of the oil companies, the crisis in the area would be very minimal if not eliminated.”
The Governor however promised to leave a legacy where all the different ethnic groups are united for the common goal of an accelerated and meaningful development of Delta State where ethnic distrust is reduced to the minimum.
However, former U.S Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador Carrington blamed the dearth of basic infrastructure in the Niger Delta on the failure of successive governments.
Carrington particularly took a swipe on the military for bastardising the concept of true federalism in Nigeria.
“It would seem to me clear that the underlying source of discontent in the region is the failure of successive national governments to use a fair portion of the wealth it extracts to benefit the area which produces it.”
He added “the current crisis whose origins which can be traced back to the failings of a federal system to deal with the marginalization which so many citizens of the oil producing region feel.”