oil industry/ownership of oil blocks known to the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, when the Chief Edwin Clark-led group visited him on August 3.
Clark had noted then that only one person from the South-South was represented on the nine-member board of the NNPC.
PNDPC
PNDPC leader, Ayemi-Botu, alias Lion of the Niger, who spoke to Vanguard on phone, said: “The present government is insensitive to the calls of well-meaning Niger Deltans on the lopsided appointments and management of the NNPC since the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari came on board.
“The President actually started with 33 appointments clearly against the region, later it replaced the Group Managing Director of NNPC with a northerner and even when the 16-point agenda was presented to him, November 1, last year, his attention was drawn to the composition of NNPC board, dominated by northerners.
“There is no gainsaying that NNPC is an offshoot of oil that is derived from the Niger Delta and the people must have a say in what happens, but even while the anger has not subsided, the President came with the latest reshuffling or whatever they call it, where the north again has taken over the NNPC. This is unacceptable to the region.
“I dare say that the President should wake up and redress this anomaly for the region is very disturbed about it. We own the oil; it belongs to us, we should not be marginalized in our own resource, that is why everybody is calling for restructuring,” he added.
Worse than quit notice
Senator Owie on his part, said: “It is regrettable that we blame IPOB, Arewa youths or Niger Delta youths over threats capable of disintegrating the country but the series of appointments made by this administration even up till now have shown that the administration is worse than those issuing ultimatum to the Igbo.
“We have observed a systematic plan to strangulate the South, particularly the South East in appointments, and it seems that this administration is not bothered at all which is sad.
“I want to appeal to President Buhari to know that this country belongs to all the ethnic groups, he should not create problem for the North where he comes from because no matter how he sees it, he would not have become President without the support of other ethnic groups.
Also angry about the appointments, former Provost Marshal of the Nigerian Army, Brig. Gen. Idada Ikpomnwen, retd, said: “It is not too different from what we have been observing for quite a while, that is since the coming of this administration. The truth is that the reason is not far-fetched.
“The administration has said that the majority of the votes that put the President there were Northern votes, so they need to take care of their interest, which to me is not a good position in the sense that after the election, the President becomes every body’s President.
“Therefore, they are entitled to positions, particularly when it is true that if it were not for some reasonable votes from other ethnic groups, he would not have met the constitutional requirements in terms of votes across the country. He got 1/3 in most of the states in the South.
Other reactions
Factional president of the Ijaw Youth Council, Mr. Eric Omare, on his part said: “We are disappointed, it is lopsided, unfair and unjust against us and it is a continuation of this government’s discriminatory treatment of the Niger Delta people.
“Further, it is also a violation of the 1999 Constitution because that law requires that when you are making appointments at the
