Ijaw Group Kicks Against Water Resources Bill
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An Ijaw group, Movement for the Survival of Izon Ethnic Nationality in the Niger Delta (MOSIEND), has said that the Ijaw nation is against the Water Resources Bill because it is targeted at impoverishing the Ijaws.
The National President of MOSIEND, Mr Kennedy Tonjo- West, made the assertion on Tuesday, September 22, during the inauguration of the group’s executive members in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.
Tonjo-West stated that they are no longer satisfied with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and called on the international community and the Nigerian State to take note that the Ijaws want a referendum.
The group’s president noted that the referendum is necessary to know the direction of the Niger Delta people, adding that if the country would remain as one entity, there is need for a fresh Constitution which would give one hundred percent resource ownership to Niger Deltans, including justice and fairness.
He further said that the Ijaws are no longer comfortable with the 13 percent derivation to oil producing communities.
Meanwhile, MOSIEND has called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly to suspend the Niger Delta Development Commission budget for 2012.
MOSIEND president expressed displeasure that from the 2019 budget, no project can be traced to any community in the Niger Delta where the fund was spent and called on the president to constitute a substantive board for the Commission.
According to Tonjo-West, it was necessary to enable Niger Deltans to engage the NDDC, know how much is appropriated to the various communities and also hold the Commission accountable whenever the need arises.
He said that the leadership would engage the Federal Government in many areas, especially on some extant laws which do not protect the interest of the Ijaw nation and the people of the Niger Delta.
