Buhari to Meet Niger Delta Leaders in Bid to Stop Militancy

Buhari to Meet Niger Delta Leaders in Bid to Stop Militancy

President Muhammadu Buhari has offered to personally meet with leaders in the  Niger Delta as he seeks to resolve the growing insecurity and bombing of pipelines and oil facilities in the region by militants.

According to the Nation, the President of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Udens Eradiri, said yesterday that the presidency had made contact with elders and stakeholders to inform them of Buhari’s intention to talk peace.

He, however, did not say when the meeting is planned to hold.

Oil production in the country now hovers around 1.8 million barrels per day from 2.5 million on account of the attacks.

Buhari told APC leaders at a fast breaking dinner on Friday that the activities of the militants were hindering Nigeria’s development.

“No insurance company will want to insure installations that will end up being blown up and no banks will want to finance such installations,” he said.

“Those of you who have friends among the leadership or even the militants themselves should plead with them in the name of God ?Almighty to take it easy.”

Eradiri said:  “We want to commend the President because I heard from the grapevine, from one of our foremost governors and leader of Ijaw land this morning (yesterday) when he said they had been invited by the President for an engagement with respect to the Niger Delta crises.

“So, I want to commend the President for hearing our cries and for taking the right approach because there is no other approach than what the President has decided to do.

“Mr. President is a very meticulous man who keeps a lot of things to his chest and Nigerian and people who are always around take advantage of his silence and misinterpret the body language of Mr. President in various ways.

“That body language that has been misinterpreted has created a lot of confusion that has further worsened the situation in Niger Delta.

“Therefore we thank God Mr. President will be coming out boldly to address the issues and body language will no longer be misrepresented.

“We want to thank the president for that bold step and look forward to the right leaders going to sit down with the President to properly articulate the position of Niger Delta”.