A Niger Delta activist and the national National convener of the Niger Delta Self Determination Movement (NDSDM), Ms Annkio Briggs, has said the whether president Jonathan get re-elected or not, the people of Niger Delta have resolved to emback on agitation for the ownership of the oil this year.
She also alledged that there were some cabals in the country who believe that they must control everything, saying the same people were the one sabotaging the process.
Speaking in an interview with journalists yesterday in Abuja, the Niger delta activist revealed that the country will definitely see agitation from her region very soon.
“I want Nigerians to understand that the Niger Delta people have decided that whether Jonathan the president of not the president in 2015 is no longer an issue for us because we have to support him. Now whether is the president or not the president, come 2015 Niger Delta will start agitating the ownership of the oil, even if everybody does not do it, some of us are going to do it and we are going to do it untill we get what we want. Other countries are practising ownership, we must practice ownership.
“The land Niger Delta belong to me and not you. You come from a particular region and I can not claim North-east. Why is everybody else claiming Niger Delta? Let us be realistic, I come from Niger Delta, it is my place therefore what is there is mine. But the constitution of the 1999 says it is not, fine, I don’t have to accept it, we don’t have to accept it.”
Speaking further on agitation of ownership, Annkio Briggs, explained that, “We will see agitation from the Niger Delta. I am speaking to you as the National convener of the Niger Delta Self Determination Movement (NDSDM), our project as we see it today is that we are going to use every legal mean available both within and outside Nigeria.
“We concided the oil companies and the federal government of Nigeria thart are operating in the Niger Delta as people that are operating without our bonafide consent. It doesn’t mean that by the constitution they don’t have right to operate, they do but we are saying that we do not accept that they have such right. So we will pursue the legal angle. We want the constitution to be interpreted and when it is interpreted, we want to see whethe that constitution is in our favour or not, if it is not in our favour we want to change it in our favour.
She cited America as example where the country decided to leave their oil in the land, adding that other mineral resources in the Northern part of Nigeria were also leave in the land, saying government should also leave oil in the land.
Reacting to the insinuations that the final reports of the defunct National Conference has been torched, the Niger Delta activist said “I as person who attended the conference I am not surprise that any part of the reports will be doctor because it is not the delegates that have written the reports, it is other people that have sat down to write the reports, so there would be areas that people object to but I am saying that in general, this thing is not about one region alone, it is about six regions that make up of Nigeria. It is not about one ethnic group, it is about all the over 250 groups that make up Nigeria, whether Nigeria survive as a nation is dependent on every one of us.
