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To further promote sustainable peace and development in the country, the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, will declare open the second meeting of the National Council on Niger Delta (NCND) in Ondo State.
The event, slated for September 7-14, 2017 in the South West region, themed, “Fast tracking the development and peace in the Niger region,” would also be attended by the nine oil producing states in the country.
This will avail the acting president the opportunity to conclude his tour to all Niger Delta states, which was first hosted by Akwa Ibom in 2013; and to meet the stakeholders on how to sustain peace in the oil communities of the state.
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It will be recalled that the visit, earlier scheduled for February this year, was cancelled due to poor weather. The Minister of Niger Delta Ministry, Pastor Usani Uguru, disclosed this yesterday at a press conference jointly organised by the federal ministry and the Ondo State government in Abuja.
The Ondo State Deputy Governor, Agboola Ajayi and the Chairman of the State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (OSOPADEC), Gbenga Edema, who also doubles as the Chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC), represented the state government.
Uguru noted that the state was chosen to host the NCND for strategic reasons, stressing that it is presumed that only states from South South are in the Niger Delta region.
Agboola, however, lamented that the state was marginalized by the Niger Delta Ministry in its 2016 and 2017 budgets, appealing for improvement on what is accrued to the state in the budget.
