An Ijaw activist and the preacher of the gospel of Salvation, Rev. Dr. Sokari Soberekon has condemned the compromise reached between Nigeria and Morocco to lay a gas pipeline from the Niger Delta to Morocco enroute to Europe.
He queried the source of power at which the president derived his power to enter into such an agreement with Morocco.
Dr. Soberekon posited that such plans, if succeeded would further increase the suffering of the Niger Delta whom have been short changed by successive federal government especially in the area of revenue derivation due to the people of the oil producing states.
“Instead of laying pipes from West Africa to North Africa, the government should lay water pipe from other part of the country to the people of Niger Delta as the people cannot boost of any portable water since the discovery of oil in the region in 1956.
On the call by Gen. Yakubu Gowon to be patient with the Buhari led federal government, the Senior Advocate of Niger Delta said, the people of the region have been patient with successive federal government since he was 14 years old when oil was first discovered in the Niger Delta.
He described Gowon as the man only next to Christ in his life, saying if the people must be patient with the federal government, Buhari has to resign for Gowon to take over as president of the country, then and only then would the people be patient.
The Ijaw strongman further stated that what the people of the region need now are not patience or resource control but a referendum for independence from Nigeria as he assured the people that independence would surely come to them without a barrel of the gun but through prayers while lawmakers from the region to push for a referendum and to boycott seating and other activities in the Nigerian government.
He commended Gov. Wike for his developmental strides as he is following the footsteps of the likes of Spiff, Okilo and Ada-George and the re-naming of the Liberation Stadium after Yakubu Gowon who liberated the Calabar/Ogoja/Rivers core state which was the yielding of our love.
Meanwhile, Rev. Soberekon had called on the federal government to grant political autonomy to the Niger Delta and other regions that are agitating for freedom. He said, that is the only panacea for peace in the country.###
