N’Delta ministry to set sports outfits to harvest talents

The Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs says it will start a sports festival in the region this year, in its bid to discover youth potential and foster peace among the people.

A statement signed by the Head, Press and Public Relations at the ministry, Patricia Deworitshe, on Thursday said this was disclosed by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mr Adesola Olusade, during a courtesy visit of the Foundation for Partnership in the Niger Delta to the ministry. The group was led by its Advocacy Manager, Chucks Ofulure.

The statement added that Olusade told the visitors that because of the limitations to what the ministry could do in addressing the situation in the region, the ministry had decided to review the Niger Delta Action Plan and the Niger Delta Master Plan with the view to harmonising the two plans with the ministry intervention programme in order to avoid duplicity.

The statement said, “Olusade explained that the Niger Delta Development Commission and other intervention programmes initiated by the government is to address different activities of the Niger Deltans, which other Non-Governmental Organisations are also partnering with government to assuage.

“He said the skills acquisition centres have been massively developed across the states of the Niger Delta area in three major aspects of oil and gas, commerce and agriculture. The ministry also hopes to complete and equip them so that they can be utilised for the skills acquisition programmes and therefore appealed for intervention support from the NGOs in these areas.”