Ex-Niger Delta militants have urged companies and businesses that left the region following the era of militancy to return to the region, saying they have resolved to ensure uninterrupted peace in the region henceforth.
The former militant warlords, who also called on interventionist agencies to work together with them to sustain the peace and ensure the development of the region, condemned the proliferation of illegal refineries and lamented its adverse effects on the health of the people.
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Speaking in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital over the weekend during a regional peace summit to sensitize people on the need to advance the peace currently enjoyed in the region, the ex-militants said that peace was vital in bringing back investors to the region.
One of the participants at the summit and ex-freedom fighter, Pastor Nature Dumale Kieghe, said as ex-agitators, who keyed into the vision of the Interim Administrator, Presidential Amnesty Programme Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd), they had resolved to work for a new and better Niger Delta.
He said: “It is important to sensitize our people towards a peaceful Niger Delta and create a friendly environment that will attract development, multinational companies and other foreign investors to the region.
“We, who once carried guns, are now here to preach the message of peace to our people in the region.
“Peace is the only way we can have the developed environment that we dream of, peace is the only way to attract the multinationals, investors and also be gainfully employed.
“Companies that have left the Niger Delta because of insecurity need to return, this is the purpose for sensitization.
“We are blessed with an environment that is supposed to prosper us and we can only enjoy our natural resources if there is a peaceful environment.”
He said with the right synergy, the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Presidential Amnesty office could hasten the needed development of the region.
He noted that beyond hampering the development of the region, illegal refining of petroleum products is life-threatening and dangerous to the ecosystem.
The sensitization programme commenced in Bayelsa State with 150 Niger Delta youths in attendance and would be held in all the states of the region to create adequate awareness.
