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Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan has condemned Sunday's kidnapping of the father of the Secretary to the State Government, Chief Arthur Okowa, describing it as a criminal act that has no link with the Niger Delta crisis.
Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan has condemned Sunday's kidnapping of the father of the Secretary to the State Government, Chief Arthur Okowa, describing it as a criminal act that has no link with the Niger Delta crisis.
The governor also vowed not to pay a dime as ransom to the abductors.
Speaking on Monday night in Asaba when the newly elected executive of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) visited him at his official lodge, the governor assured that the perpetrators would be pursued and made to face the wrath of the law.
Condemning the kidnap of Okowa, Governor Uduaghan said 'it has noting to do with oil or the Niger Delta. It is purely a criminal act and it didn't happen in the part of the state where we have witnessed oil crisis… Some criminals just came and did it."
While calling on the kidnappers to release Pa Okowa, Dr. Uduaghan stressed that no ransom would be paid.
He assured the Delta people of their continued safety, stressing that the State Government was doing everything possible to secure lives and property.
The governor also assured workers in the oil industry of their safety and that of oil facilities, adding that the State Government was in close touch with the various host communities to sensitise them on the issue.
He said the state believed that equal attention should be given to the security of Nigerian workers, because every life was important. 'As we pay attention to the safety of expatriates, we should do the same to Nigerians working with the oil companies," he added.
Dr. Uduaghan challenged PENGASSAN to use its position as a pressure group to support the clamour for an upward review of derivation funds accruing to the oil producing states of the Niger Delta.
He argued that the region required enormous funding for its development because of its peculiar terrain.
Earlier, the National President of PENGASSAN, Babatunde Oguns noted that the issue of peace and security in the Niger Delta should be taken up as a collective responsibility of all stakeholders, including the multi-nationals.
Oguns who said the PENGASSAN national officers were in Delta State as part of a consultative visit to the oil producing states, harped on the need to 'bring back confidence to the people of the region."
He said the Niger Delta deserved far more than what the region was receiving and stressed the need for a concerted effort to bring rapid development to the region as well improve the wellbeing of the people.
He expressed the association's opposition to the resort to military solution as a way out of region's problems.