The presidency on Wednesday issued a statement through the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, stating that the Niger Delta Militant group have not showed interest in the dialogue initiated by the Federal Government to end the incessant bombings of oil pipelines in the state.
The statement read in part, “Despite the government’s demonstration of goodwill by bringing stakeholders to the roundtable, militant groups have continued to blow up national economic assets.”
Garba said that there is a need to reach an agreement as the continuous destruction of oil installations had frustrated any peaceful negotiations, and also casused a lot of setbacks to the nation.
He urged the Niger Delta leaders to unite together with the government and facilitate the stoppage of violence and sabotage by their people in the oil given area.
He said, “we must keep national interest above all else and give priority to eschewing violence and destruction,” he said.
Shehu also said the Federal Government was facilitating development by speeding up ongoing projects and investing in construction and repair of highways, railways and electricity plants.
The Presidential spokesman also hinted that a certain number of projects which have only existed on paper for a duration of time were being looked into and execution has been implemented.
“Kano-Katsina dual highway was awarded three years ago by the last administration. They didn’t pay a kobo for its start-up. President Buhari just paid money for the first tranche of 75 kilometres and work has begun,” he added.
Shehu underscored the essence of infrastructure in the country’s economic and industrial take-off, describing it as playing the same role that the arteries play in the human body.
“Without infrastructure, the country will not witness growth,” he noted
The Niger Delta militants have continuously been associated with several bombings of pipelines such as the Shell facilities and the Forcados oil pipeline, amongst many others which has resulted in the decline of the oil export in the nation thereby causing poor income generation.