Breaking: Buhari appeals to NDA, says “We can’t afford to go back to where we are coming from”
President Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday appealed to the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), saying “Government will continue to honour our promises and we cannot afford going back to the dark days of oil vandalism”
According to him, “Threats, killings and destruction of installations cannot take us anywhere”
He also revealed that additional allocations for the continued clean up of Ogoniland is contained in 2018 budget.
President Buhari made the comments during his address at the presentation of the 2018 national budget estimates before the joint seating of the National Assembly, Abuja.
Business Hilights recalls that since the announcement by the NDA that it has suspended its ceasefire, monarchs, statesmen and governors have welded into calling on the militant group to shelve planned bombardments of oil installations.
The group had on Friday last week, announced on its website that it had suspended its ceasefire due to observed hanky-panky of the federal government in delivering on its promises to the development of the region.
Though former Minister of Information and leader of Niger Delta Elders Forum, Chief Edwin Clark was the first to call, for peace and more rooms for peace talks, other regional leaders and governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa has joined in the calls for continued peace in the oil-rich region to avoid plunging back the economy into recession.
However, has assured of ability to quell any form of attacks in the region, experiences in the past show that damages on installations are always on the high side whenever the militants are at war with Joint task force.
Though oil prices had been on steady rise in the last couple of months, the announcement pushed the rise to $62.44 on Monday.
Though experts traced the surge to tight market condition due to some trending political developments in Saudi Arabia bordering on corruption probes, local analysts also fingered the threat by NDA as having impacts on the price jump.
Brent futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, hit $62.44 per barrel early on Monday, their highest level for years now.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude hit $56.00 per barrel in early trading, also the highest for many months now.
