• You have hijacked powers of police, Falana tells Nigerian Army
Managing Director, Niger Delta Development Commission, Dr Samuel Ogboku, has canvassed improvement in the economy and industrialisation of the Niger Delta region to create jobs for the youths to curb restiveness and agitations.
 
Ogboku stated this in Enugu yesterday at the ongoing Annual General Conference (AGC) of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). 
  
Speaking on ‘Water and Martine Security’, Ogboku stated that the 1.8 million barrels of oil per day currently being achieved was a result of the interagency security of the Niger Delta areas.
 
He pointed out that if the economy continues to improve and the areas are industrialised, oil productivity would increase because the youths would be engaged and would not have time for agitations, as witnessed in the near past before the establishment of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
 
He noted that if the Niger Delta is not safe, there cannot be development, pointing out that in the past, the region was hijacked by militants, thereby making the communities unsafe.
 
Ogboku, however, said that the precarious situation has changed because currently, no community is under siege by the militants. 

“No community in the Niger Delta is a militant camp because the area has been lighted up; the place is illuminated.  Today, we have created equality in the Niger Delta,” he declared.
 
The NDDC boss expressed hope that the region would be developed when the Blue Economy is taken advantage of.
  
Ogbuku assured that the Commission will continue to support security agencies to secure the waterways and boost the emerging blue economy in the country.
  
The NDDC boss, who led a team from the Commission, including the Executive Director of Finance and Administration, Alabo Boma Iyaye, observed that the national policy on the marine and blue economy would require the support of the security agencies to succeed.
   
Also, at the event, the Human Rights Activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, yesterday, said that the Nigerian Army has abandoned its constitutional duty to take over the role of the Police Force.
  
He stated that national security is different from government security, stressing that for security and human rights to be achieved under the law, each section of the Force must act within the confines of the Constitution.
  
He spoke as the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission, Tony Ojukwu, tasked security agencies with the need to respect the rights of citizens during enforcement functions.
  
Falana, who was worried about the level of encroachment of the Nigerian army into internal security of the country, told representatives of the Chief of Army Staff, the Director of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Inspector General of Police that their actions had seriously breached the Constitution of the country.