Ignore blackmailers, busy bodies, Talakawa’s Parliament urges Niger Delta Minister

A group, Talakawa’s Parliament, TP, has decried an alleged marginalization of the people of the Edo South, especially from benefiting from the 2024 budget allocated to Niger Delta communities.

This was disclosed in a press statement signed by the group’s acting secretary Comrade Osas Agbonamwanre.

The group alleged that Oil Producing Communities in Edo South were not considered in the allocation of budget for Niger Deltans which led to agitations from the Senatorial District. According to them, series of petitions had also been written against the Minister, Dr Abubakar Momoh, including the one they sent to the House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions.

It will be noted that the House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions had written to the Niger Delta Affairs Minister to defend himself on why he allegedly allocated all the projects to a particular Senatorial District of Edo North while Edo South was completely excluded from the allocation.

Talakawa’s parliament also condemned an attempt by a group to smear the reputation and character of leaders of Benin National Congress, BNC, and the House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions.

According to the statement: ” It has come to our notice of the purported and watery press statement issued by a self-deluding Coalition with the nomenclature *Coalition For Good Governance and Economic Justice in Africa* and signed by one Mayaki where he vigorously encouraged the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Abubakar Momoh to parochially focus on Edo South marginalization.

“While responding to a justiceable petition by the Benin National Congress worldwide, which was entertained by the House of Reps Public Petitions Committee on 7th March 2024 against the unprovoked marginalization and sequestration of the Oil and Gas producing Communities of Edo South, by excluding the only senatorial district from the five capital projects attracted to Edo State by the Minister who was appointed by the Presidency by the grace of the oil mineral deposits in the marginalized communities of Edo South.

“There is an adage that says ” A child who will not let his mother sleep will also have no peace”

“Those that are against development of the oil and gas producing communities of Edo South will not sleep, by the grace of God and our ancestors.

“The Minister cannot be focused when he is trying by all possible means to exacerbate the development of the underdevelopment of the Oil Producing Communities of Ikpoba Okha, Orhionmwon and Ovia North East Local Government Areas with the citing of major projects in Edo North without recourse to the oil producing communities. By the Minister’s anti-Benin tendencies, he inadvertently cast doubt about his qualification to be a Minister under President Tinubu’s administration that pride it’s regime as *renewed hope*.

“It is very obvious that the pivotal issue raised by the Benin National Congress( BNC ) in the petition was not addressed by Mayaki and his patron clientele, because, they have no sense to make about the logical arguments, including the irreducible demand that at least, 70% of the misappropriated capital projects in Edo North be immediately and unconditionally re-allocated according to Edo South Senatorial District.

“There is a legal maxim , *you cannot give what you don’t have* ( Nemo dat quod non habet) Since they have nothing reasonable to say, they chose to cast aspersion on the personalities of BNC leaders who took the bull by the horn by speaking truth to power, and to present the Minister as an ethnic jingoist, and a seeking misfit in the Federal Executive Council”, the statement noted.

Talakawa’s Parliament wishes to express its solidarity with the Benin National Congress and members of the National Assembly from Edo South who stood firmly for justice and in defense of development of the oli producing communities.

“We admonished the infinitesimal elements behind a non-existent Coalition For Good Governance and Economic Justice in Africa to desist forthwith from exhibiting tomfooleries in the name of defending the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs whose act is capable of promoting social unrest, ethnic strife and anarchy in the oil and gas communities.

“They should know that the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs was created to focus on the infrastructural development, environmental protection and empowerment of youths in the oil rich Niger Delta region”.