THE United Niger Delta Energy Development Security Strategy, UNDEDSS, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to revive the 2009 amnesty template adopted by late President Umaru Yar’Adua saying it would stem the tide of armed agitation in the Niger Delta. In a statement by its Secretary General, Mr. Tony Iprinye Uranta, UNDEDSS called on the Federal government to appoint a credible Special Adviser on the region and re-establish the Niger Delta Committee/Council that operated five sub-Committees to holistically and sustainably address the challenges identified . The scribe said:

 “UNDEDSS and other leading stakeholders in the region have tirelessly interfaced with very senior members of this administration and given them a detailed template the President should deploy now to resolve this growing insecurity in the region, which is negatively impacting all of Nigeria.” “In the light of the conflicting statements being made by too many representatives of both the region and the Federal Government, it is necessary, however, to state that the Niger Delta is not going to know sustainable peace via the coterie of so-called Contact Groups or Committees! And, that there cannot be any reliable dialogue, between the FGN and the region, without a commitment to justice and equity by President Buhari himself.”

While he called on the federal government to adopt the 2008 Niger Delta Technical Committee’s Report, he said there was need for Buhari’s administration to commence steps which reassured the Niger Delta of its sincere commitment to justice and equity. Uranta said: “These steps include the release of 10 secondary schoolchildren and others detained as prisoners-of-war for many weeks since the military’s invasion of Gbaramatu Kingdom; the return of symbols of Gbaramatu traditional worship, and most important, President Buhari should address the nation to announce that he would personally lead the revival of the 2009 template premised on a Niger Delta Development Committee under his supervision.”

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