• Alerts Niger Delta communities to dangers

A socio-political group in the South-South geopolitical region, the Niger Delta Youth Council, has rejected the proposed National Water Resources Bill, describing it as “a well-calculated plan to further enslave Niger Deltans, particularly the Ijaws.”

The group, led by Comrade Mamamu Youkore, has consequently alerted Niger Delta communities to “wake up and reject the proposed bill.”

This was contained in a statement jointly signed by Comrade Youkore and Comrade Shadrach Ebikeme, the group’s President and Secretary respectively, copies of which were made available to journalists in Warri on Monday.

It noted with concern that, “If the controversial Bill is not rejected, and should it be passed into law, it could be dangerous to the already suffocating Niger Deltans and Ijaws in the Nigerian state.”

“The Bill will tear our fragile unity. They have taken the crude oil, water and the lives of the people. It is obnoxious and wicked to the Niger Delta and the Ijaw nation. The Bill raised lots of suspicion. To us in Niger Delta, particularly the Ijaws, water is life. The Nigerian state have taken too much from us already, we will resist this move”, the group further stated.

While noting that there are already too many unfriendly laws militating against the progress of Ijaw nation and Niger Delta, the group maintained that adding the proposed National Water Resources Bill to the list will be too much to bear, hence it had to be rejected by all means necessary.

The group submitted that the Bill was not necessary at this point of Nigeria’s existence, urging the National Assembly to promote only Bills that will propagate national unity than division.

It reiterated that, in spite of the growing desperation by the Federal Government for the passage of the Bill, and the series of disinformation handed members of the National Assembly, “the National Water Resources Bill has lots of ambiguity, confusion and treasonable acts.”