No fewer than 70 signatories, including representatives of ethnic nationalities and pan Niger Delta groups, are expected to sign the proposed Niger Delta Peoples Charter.
President of the Niger Delta Congress, Nubari Sataah, disclosed this in a statement made available to newsmen in Warri, shortly after the second imprimatur was done on Monday.
According to the statement, a former President of the Nigeria Environmental Society (NES) and elder statesman, Engr. Olu Andah Wai-Ogosu, signed the charter on behalf of Rivers State.
This comes after Prof. Ebiegberi Joe Alagoa signed on behalf of Bayelsa State on November 4.
Sataah emphasised that the charter will continue to other Niger Delta states to collate signatures.
“The Niger Delta Peoples Charter will continue its journey to other Niger Delta states, to collate signatures. It is expected that 70 persons will sign the Charter, including representatives of all ethnic nationalities of the region and Pan Niger Delta groups,” the president stated.
Recall that the Niger Delta Peoples Charter, scheduled for unveiling February 23, 2022, will commemorate the 55th anniversary of the declaration of the Niger Delta Republic by the late Major Isaac Adaka Boro.
It contains five critical demands, including the urgent need for the Nigerian Constitution to be revised as recommended in the recently convened national conferences.
It should also be recalled that ethnic nationalities of the oil-rich region, under the auspices of Niger Delta Congress, had on October 8, in Yenagoa, adopted a charter of what they termed their “inalienable rights.”
They warned that failure by the Federal Government to adopt a constitution that captures these rights in the shortest possible time would leave Niger Delta people with no option, “but to exercise our rights to self-determination as a people, independent of the Nigerian Federation.”
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