Group urges militants to stop bombing oil installations

File photo: oil pipeline fire

The Network of Grassroots Elite for Capacity Development (NGECP), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), has urged Niger Delta militants to stop bombing the nation’s oil installations and save citizens from further hardships.

The South-South Coordinator of the group, Adele Jombai, made the call during the group’s national conference in Awka on Monday.

He said that the Federal Government should deepen stakeholder’s engagement with leaders of the area and address the issues that led to the problem.

He added that elders and stakeholders in the Niger Delta region have told the militants involved in these activities to stop the bombings because it was affecting everybody.

“What is now left is for government to follow the path of peace, which is why we are saying that the Federal Government should deepen
stakeholders’ engagement.”

The South West leader of the group, Alhaji Idowu Alonge, described the current economic situation as hard on masses and called for urgent private/public collaboration to ameliorate the plight of the people.

He said “there is hunger in the land and our aim is to work with the federal and state governments to initiate programmes that will affect the people at the grassroots in a positive way.

“There are people who do not have anything to do and there are others that have ideas and skills but no finance to drive them, so our appeal is that while we are waiting for governments, the rich can help.”

On her part, the National President of the NGO, Mrs Joy Igboka, said there was need to mobilise the grassroot to key into the empowerment programme of the various levels of government to create the required effect.

Igboka said the NGECP wanted to embark on selfless manpower development programme for the grassroots.

She said “there is need to train, develop and mobilise people at the grassroots for desirable positive change; it is also important that we resolve the conflicts plaguing the country.

“Our organisation which has presence across Nigeria is making itself an intermediary between the less privileged at the communities and the elite and we are here to bridge the the widening gap.

“We also appeal to the rich in the society who have more than enough to empower the poor around them through the windows of seminars, workshops, symposiums and skills training, which our NGO provides.”