Elder statesman and South-South leader, Chief Edwin Clark, has knocked President Bola Tinubu for scrapping the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, saying the people of the region will resist that.

DAILY POST recalls that President Tinubu and the Federal Executive Council (FEC), announced the scrapping of the Niger Delta Ministry and the Ministry of Sports Development.

A tweet by the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to the President, Bayo Onanuga, on Wednesday, 23 October 2024, said the decision was reached during the FEC meeting.

In his reaction, the elder statesman stated that there was no need for the scrapping of the ministry. He accused the federal government of plans to use the money from the South-South geopolitical zone to develop the various development commissions of other geopolitical zones that have been established.

He said President Tinubu has no good plans for the people of the Niger Delta, just as he said that the late President Umaru Yar’Adua created the ministry for the development of the zone and to ensure permanent peace as well as to nip in the bud cases of pipeline vandalization.

Edwin Clark, the leader of the Southern and Middle-Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF), said he received the news as a surprise.

“What I have noted so far is that there is no basis for scrapping it. Yar’Adua had a clear purpose to address the security situation in the Niger Delta, which led to the creation of the ministry to focus on the development of that area. We have been working for some time now, managing our commission,” he remarked.

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