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Sunday, 15 May 2016

Buhari Is A Muslem From The North,And Hasn't Visited The Christian Delta Since Taking Office - British Official




       A British Senior Official has strictly antagonize President Muhammadu Buhari over the deploying of heavily armed soldiers the the Niger Delta,to crush the disturbing Niger Delta Avengers,Who is gradually crippling Nigeria's economy as boasted earlier.             Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari
needs to address grievances in the Delta
region where militants have been blowing
up
oil pipelines in a conflict that has become a
“major concern”, a senior British official said
yesterday.
The swamps of the southern Delta have
been hit by a series of attacks on pipelines
and other oil and gas facilities that have
reduced Nigeria’s output by 300,000 barrels
a day, closed a major export port and two
refineries.
Nigeria has moved in army reinforcements
to hunt the militants but British Foreign
Minister Philip Hammond said Buhari
needed to the deal with the root causes
because a military confrontation could end
in “disaster”.

ALSO READ: Five Suspected Niger Delta Avengers Militants Arrested,Taken Away by Military

Crude sales from the Delta account for 70
percent of national income in Africa’s
biggest economy but residents, some of
whom sympathise with the militants, have
long complained of poverty.
“It’s obviously a major concern,” Hammond
told reporters on the sidelines of a regional
security conference in Abuja when asked
about the Delta situation.
“The idea that your answer is by moving big
chunks of the Nigerian army to the Delta
simply doesn’t work,” he said, adding that
the army did not have the capacity while
fighting Boko Haram jihadists in the north.
“It won’t deal with the underlying issues.”
“Buhari has got to show as a president from
the north that he is not ignoring the Delta,
that he is engaging with the challenges in
the Delta,” Hammond said.
Buhari is a Muslim from the north who has
not visited the Christian Delta since taking
office a year ago, something highlighted by
a militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers,
which has claimed a string of attacks on
pipelines.
The group has warned oil firms to leave the
region within two weeks and says it is
fighting for independence for the Delta. It
has said it wanted a greater share of oil
revenues and an end to oil pollution.
The attacks have driven Nigerian oil output
to near a 22-year low and, if the violence
escalates into another insurgency, it could
cripple output in a country facing a growing
economic crisis.
Buhari, who has not commented about not
visiting the Delta, has extended a multi-
million dollar amnesty signed with militants
in 2009 but upset them by ending generous
pipeline protection contracts.
He also cut the amnesty budget by around
70 percent, which partly funds training for
unemployed.

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