Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State is in fresh trouble as a new coalition of ex-militants from the oil producing areas of Delta State, New Delta Avenger (NDA) has accused him of marginalizing the oil producing areas of the state.
In a statement by the spokesperson of the militant group, Cpl Olleum Bellum: “If you see the allocations for states that were released by Ministry of Finance, you will see that Delta State and Okowa were paid N4, 747,930,884.16 billion for February and DESOPADEC is supposed to get half of that money, but we know that nothing was paid to DESOPADEC.”
“We also call on President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo to pay 13 per cent money direct to oil communities. We want to control our resources in Delta because government has failed us.”
“But we have to inform you today that the hour is near. We said before that we will commence our operation on the end of month, that we can move the date forward. New Delta Avenger command is now ready. We have sent all our boys and materials to the location we are target (sic) and we have also put the government on notice about our action. We are not cowards, we do not hide under the shadow to operate.”
“Let the governor wake up from his slumber and come to term with his vicious acts towards our communities. He cannot wash away the truth. He has not done anything to benefit the oil communities from Ndokwa to Koko to Forcados. We said he is robbing Peter to pay Paul and we stand by this. Let him release the fact on the fund that he had given to DESOPADEC.”
“Why is he not publishing accounts of the state allocation, internally generated revenue, IGR and other revenues and what he has done with them like his colleagues in other states are doing. Even projects that were begun before the Okowa government by DESOPADEC have all halted because the money is being siphoned.”