Traditional Rulers in Nigeria’s restive Niger Delta region have listed conditions they expect the Nigerian Government to meet before they enter into dialogue.

The monarchs listed the conditions in a statement released after a meeting with government officials.

In the statement, the traditional rulers listed six things the Government should do in order to build confidence and stop the destruction of the country’s oil assets by militants in the region.

The statement reads: “Having acceded to the call for a ceasefire by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, on August 4, 2016, the buck has now been passed to the table of the Federal Government as driven by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources – a representative of the Federal Government.

“For the purposes of building confidence in the system, we wish to state here that as a matter of urgency the Federal Government should appoint/constitute a Federal Government dialogue team; release the 10 innocent school children arrested by the Nigerian Army on the 28th of May, 2016 in Oporoza and others in detention on trumped up charges.

“Return the Golden Sword, being the symbol of authority in the Gbaramatu traditional institution; return the three traditional council speed boats in custody of the Nigerian Army; cessation of hostilities perpetrated by the military in the Niger Delta region; and equally important, the Federal Government should make a categorical statement about the opening of the Maritime University, Okerenkoko Delta State for academic activities in the 2016/2017 session.”

The statement comes days after a militant group in the region, the Niger Delta Avengers, agreed to a ceasefire and a dialogue with the Nigerian government.

The Niger Delta Avengers have claimed several major attacks but have been apparently less active in recent weeks, leading to speculations about a ceasefire as the government has been trying for two months to reach out to the militants.

The restive southern swampland region has been rocked by violence against oil and gas pipelines since the start of the year, reducing the OPEC member’s output by 700,000 barrels a day to 1.56 million bpd.

Any ceasefire agreement would be very difficult to enforce as the militant scene is divided into small groups dominated by unemployed youth driven by poverty, who are difficult to control even by their “generals”. (TV360 Nigeria)

•Photo shows a cross section of Niger Delta monarchs.

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