Meeting With Niger Delta Avengers: Minister In
Trouble, Buhari Orders Probe
Trouble, Buhari Orders Probe
*Dalung disguised, sneaked into Oporoza
*Community denies minister’s visit
*Ex-Supreme Court Justice’s son facilitated trip
Days after his acclaimed meeting with the militant
group, Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), Sports and
Youth Development Minister, Mr. Solomon Dalung,
appears to have run into trouble as President
Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the probe of
circumstances surrounding the parley.
“Mr. President has ordered that the minister
provides an answer as to whether or not he actually
met with Avengers, and if truly he did, he wants to
know from him who authorised the meeting,” a
presidential aide told our correspondent.
This development came, as it emerged that one
Jude Tabai, the son of a retired justice of the
Supreme Court, facilitated Dalung’s trip to Oporoza.
But the minister did not disclose his identity to the
host community during his visit as he introduced
himself as the head of a non-governmental
organisation (NGO) working for development in the
Niger Delta.
The duo of the minister and Jude went without any
security escort, a local source said. On Monday, the
Sports Minister claimed to have met with the
leadership of the militant group as well as
community leaders in Oporoza, Gbaramatu Kingdom
of Warri South West Local Government area of Delta
State.
But the source, who spoke on the heels of the
NDA’s and Oporoza community’s denial of any
meeting with Dalung, disclosed that the president
has directed the National Security Adviser (NSA),
Major General Mohammed Monguno (rtd) to “get to
the root of the meeting.
“The first question Mr. President raised on the
report that the minister visited the leadership of the
Avengers and Oporoza community was, who
authorised the visit? The question became
necessary because neither the NSA nor the
petroleum minister or even the military task force
was aware of the minister’s trip to the area.
”One thing again is the fact that anything could have
happened. And again, it raises the question that if
government now knows who the leaders of the
Avengers are, then what next? “Mr. President is
unhappy over this and he directed the NSA to get to
the root of the said meeting because it became
more embarrassing when both the Avengers and the
community are denying that they met with the
minister,” the source told New Telegraph.
A community leader from Oporoza, Mr. Ekilegha
Elvis, said the only person who visited the
community was the head of an NGO who came with
Jude Tabai to meet a few youths. ”They said the
man was an NGO man, he only met with some
youths who were playing football, interacted with
them and left without even seeing the traditional
ruler,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Oporoza community has dissociated
itself from the purported meeting between the
sports minister and the community. The
community, in a statement raised the alarm that the
claim was an attempt to link Oporoza with the
Avengers.
“Our attention has been drawn to a statement by
the minister of youth and sports as contained in the
newspapers, that he paid a visit to the traditional
headquarters of Gbaramatu Kingdom, Oporoza town
to have interactive session with members of the
Niger Delta Avengers and community people.
“It is pertinent to state that, to the best of our
knowledge, we the leadership of the community did
not receive the minister of youth and sports, or any
other government official in Oporoza town last
week. We have stated in many fora and occasions
that we do not know anything about the Niger Delta
Avengers.
“Oporoza town or any other community in
Gbaramatu Kingdom has nothing to do with the
Avengers and their activities. We have, in time past,
condemned the activities of the Avengers, therefore
could not have anything to do with them in our
community,” the statement, signed by Mr. Johnbull
Demebi, said. The community added that the
minister should know that he has been deceived by
mischievous persons and perhaps must have been
swindled.
The community stated that: “As peace loving and
law abiding citizens of Nigeria, we make bold to
say that we are very receptive people, and have
received several top government functionaries in our
community, Oporoza.
For the avoidance of doubt, the last government
visitor to Oporoza community was the acting
Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, and
he was given a rousing welcome by the community,
led by the chairman, Mr. Johnbull Demebi. And so,
we doubt the claim of the Hon. Minister that he
visited Oporoza community last week and had a
meeting with members of Niger Delta Avengers and
other community people.
“At this juncture, we wish to warn and advice
government functionaries and Very Important
Persons (VIPs) to be careful and mindful of persons
they associate with, particularly with the intention of
visiting our communities, as some persons are out
there to make money from top government
functionaries and bring the name of the community
to disrepute.
“And so, whoever, wants to visit our communities
should make proper arrangement with the
leadership of such communities so as to avoid any
mishap in the course of embarking on such
journey.”
Dalung, who spoke to some journalists at the end of
a stakeholders’ meeting of the southern senatorial
zone of Plateau State in Shendam, said he took a
two-hour journey on the sea to Oporoza in
Gbaramatu Kingdom where he met with the
leadership of the NDA who gave him a sealed hand-
written letter to deliver to President Muhammadu
Buhari.
He said: “On reaching the community after the two-
hour journey on the high sea, I met with the
members of the communities who told me that their
dream was to be included in the Nigerian project,
that the education facilities and other basic social
amenities are almost nonexistent in the
communities.
They also raised concern of incessant attacks by
the Nigerian military. “As a youth minister, I know
that the Avengers are mostly youths who have
potential to be great citizens of this country,” he
had said.
Dalung stated that after meeting with the
communities, he was escorted by the Niger Delta
ambassadors to the leadership of Avengers who
gave him a hand-written letter specifying their
demands which, he said, he was yet to present to
the president. Although the minister said he did not
unseal the letter, he said the Avengers had raised
three important issues to him.
“The issues include the Niger Delta Maritime
University, pipeline community policing, which, they
said, government had denied them and the inability
of government to continue with the amnesty
programme established by former President Umaru
Musa Yar’Adua,” he had said.
Source: https://newtelegraphonline.com/meeting-
niger-delta-avengers-minister-trouble-buhari-orders-
probe/
