A perturbed President Muhammadu Buhari over the activities of the Niger Delta Militants (NDA), last night went spiritual, pleading with them in God’s name to have a change of heart over their destruction of oil and gas installations in the region.
The president who stated that there were many factions of the Niger Delta Militants also said that the groups were armed with sophisticated weapons and that the economy was on its knees following the bombing of gas pipelines.
Buhari also pleaded with friends and associates of the militants to reach out to them, stressing that Nigerians do not have any other country to call their own other than Nigeria.
The president speaking at the breaking-of-fast dinner with leaders and chieftains of his political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said: “I honestly don’t know how many factions of the militants there are in the Niger Delta compared to the north east where you have only the Boko Haram “The technology being deployed by the militants to destroy oil installations is high tech, the way they can go on high sea and international waters and target oil installations is a national problem. It is affecting development.
“No insurance company will want to insure installations that will end up being blown up and no banks will want to finance such installations. “Those of you who have friends among the leadership or even the militants themselves should plead with them in the name of God Almighty to take it easy.
“We need to stablise to create employment, we need to stabilise the economy, I agonise over these things. We are in a very difficult time, so we have to organise ourselves. Anybody that says he has any other country than Nigeria should go out and see.”
The party leaders who attended the event included former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar; a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Ghali Naaba; the party’s Deputy National Chairman (South), Segun Oni; former Bayelsa State Governor, Timipre Sylva; Tony Momoh and Senator Osita Ozinaso. Also present were the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir David Lawal and former Minister of Labour, Hassan Lawal.
