Ijaw ethnic nationality leader, Chief Edwin Clark, has said President Olusegun Obasanjo�s order for a crackdown on militants in the Niger Delta would only escalate the crisis in the area.
He alleged that soldiers attached to the Joint Task Force (JTF) in the Niger Delta under the Operation Restore Hope, had used the excuse of the orders to carry out extra-judicial killings in the creeks
Speaking at his country home in Kiagbodo, Delta State, Clark appealed to Obasanjo to reverse the order in the interest of peace and justice in the country.
Describing the presidential directive as an ill wind that will not do the country any good, the Ijaw leader said the best solution to the crisis in the oil rich region was for the Federal Government to revisit and implement the recommendations of the various reports of the committees on the development of the Niger Delt.
He said this was the only way the President�s initiative on the Coastal Area Development Council would be taken seriously.
�The President ought to have considered the consequences of such an order. I must say I had personally praised his patience in my last letter to him and we are still appealing to Mr. President to rescind the directive so as to prevent more trouble. But, he ought to realise his good intentions could be abused by some of these soldiers who have been looking for an opportunity to get at our youths,� he said.
Clark said although he and other leaders of the South South had condemned hostage-taking, it was wrong to stigmatise Niger Delta youths as terrorists or as unreasonable and insane people.
He said the actions of the youths in recent times were intended to draw attention to the neglect and deprivation in the Niger Delta.
Clark alleged that the Niger Delta Development Commission had further alienated the people of the area.
Specifically, he noted that 22 contracts, valued at N33 billion which were recently awarded by the NDDC, went to people that had no links whatsoever with the Niger Delta.
�We found out that most of the contracts went to people outside the Niger-Delta. Most the contracts awarded by the Niger Delta Development Commission went to people outside the oil-producing areas of the South South or the areas the commission was meant to essentially serve,� he said.
Meanwhile, the State Security Service in Delta State has arrested a member of a syndicate that allegedly kidnapped an oil worker in Port Harcourt.
The suspect, Nicholas Dickson, who was arrested in Warri, reportedly told the SSS that he was a part of the militant group, Niger Delta Enlightenment and Expedition Force, that kidnapped the Japanese expatriate employee of the oil firm, Homan Engineering Company.
The Japanese oil worker, simply identified as Danny, was kidnapped on August 18 in Ahoada, Rivers State and taken to a hideout in Enekoragha, Burutu Local Government, Delta State.
The militants demanded a N50 million ransom from his employers in return for his release.
Assistant Director of the SSS in Delta State, Mr. Brown Ekweoba, said Dickson was the leader of the kidnap syndicate that abducted the Japanese oil worker in Ahoada.
Ekweoba said Dickson, who is from Akugbene, Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta State had already confessed to the crime.
�Dickson has made a confessional statement to the service and pleaded for forgiveness, promising not to engage in further abduction of expatriates for whatever reason,� he said.
But, Dickson told our correspondent that he was an informant to the SSS and the JTF and only joined in the plot to kidnap Danny as part of his spying brief.
A source, however, told our correspondent that Dickson had been lured to abandon the security agencies and join the kidnappers.