THE URGENT NEED FOR PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI TO REBUILD OKERENKOKO COMMUNITY IN GBARAMATU, DELTA STATE

                                                                                                                                15th October, 2015

This public statement became very important to remind President Muhammadu Buhari, of the urgent need to rebuild Okerenkoko community, which was forcefully bombarded and razed down by the military some years ago.

It will be recalled that the military in search for former militant leader, Tompolo, who was declared wanted then wrongfully invaded the community, burnt down houses and several other properties worth hundreds of millions of naira.

Properties belonging to indigenes and several leaders including Chief Michael Johnny, who is now a chieftain of All Progressive Congress APC, worth hundreds of millions were also destroyed in the bombardment, and till this very moment the people of Okerenkoko are living like slaves, hopeless and homeless in their own land, this is not proper.

I sincerely appeal to President Buhari to reconsider the predicaments of the people of Okerenkoko, who were made to suffer innocently for the crime they never committed.

It was even more painful, that in the last five years that we had a President, an Ijaw man, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan who is from Niger Delta and yet he failed to rebuild Okerenkoko community.

We even thought that Tompolo because of his closeness to Jonathan, the federal government will rebuild Okerenkoko community within the last five years of Jonathan's administration, but unfortunately we were completely abandoned.

The spate of work at the Maritime University in Okerenkoko is very slow, we urge President Buhari to prevail on the management of Nigerian Maritime Safety and Administration NIMASA to take the execution and developments of the permanent site of the University very seriously, because the Dockyard when completed will boost the economy of the country, and Niger Delta in particular.

However, the violation of the Local Content Act, in the award of contracts for the development of Maritime University by the management of NIMASA should be urgently addressed. It is painful that no indigene of Okerenkoko community is awarded any contract by NIMASA.

We have reliably gathered that the management of the Maritime University did not employ any indigene of Okerenkoko, which also violates the Local Content Act.

Again, let me use this opportunity to acknowledge and commend Chief Michael Johnny for his unrelenting agitation for the development of Okerenkoko community.

Finally, we have implicit confidence in Chief Michael Johnny, the leader of APC in Gbaramatu to attract the needed developments to Okerenkoko community, and we also reaffirmed our supports to the government of President Buhari, whom we strongly believe will salvage our situation.

God bless Nigeria

 Signed: 

Elder Dickson Agagha

Ijaw Leader.

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