Being a Press Briefing by Prof Benjamin Okaba President, Ijaw National Congress (INC) Global on September 6, 2025, at the International Wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Nigeria, on Arrival from A 4-Day Working Visit to the Republic of Ghana.

The Ijaw National Congress (INC), the apex socio-cultural body of the Ijaw Nation, under my leadership as President, is compelled to address the Nigerian public and the international community on the grave and systematic injustices codified into law against the people of the Niger Delta. Our focus is the stark and discriminatory disparity between the governance of the oil and gas sector, as contained in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, and the solid minerals sector, governed by the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act 2007.

A comparative analysis reveals not a simple difference in administrative approach, but a deliberate and calculated legislative framework designed to militarize, plunder, and marginalize the Niger Delta while affording other regions a gentler, more equitable regime for their resources. This is a classic case of two Nigerias operating under two sets of rules.

1. The Fundamental Inequity in Community Benefits and Ownership

The most egregious disparity lies in the treatment of host communities.

· The Niger Delta Experience (PIA): The PIA offers a paltry 3% of annual operational expenditure from oil companies for host communities, a figure we rejected as insulting given the decades of monumental environmental devastation and socio-economic neglect. Furthermore, this contribution is not from profit but from operational cost, and it is mandated to be managed through a Trust Fund, effectively sidelining elected state governments and traditional institutions, reducing them to “siddon lookers” in the words of Bayelsa State’s Deputy Governor. Crucially, the Act imposes a collective punishment clause, holding entire communities financially liable for vandalism of oil assets, a provision that is unjust, unconstitutional, and inflammatory.

· The Solid Minerals Regime: In stark contrast, the Mining Act mandates that operators conclude a Community Development Agreement (CDA) with their hosts, addressing scholarships, employment, infrastructure, and enterprise development. There is no collective punishment clause. Most tellingly, while the PIA reinforces the total federal ownership of oil, the Mining Act, though also declaring federal ownership, has historically tolerated artisanal and small-scale mining by individuals and cooperatives across northern and western states, allowing them to benefit directly from their resources without military intervention . This operational laxity grants a de facto economic participation that is ruthlessly denied to the people of the Niger Delta.

2. The Environmental and Remediation Double Standard

The approach to environmental protection and remediation further highlights the bias.

· In the Niger Delta: Despite the PIA’s provisions against gas flaring, it includes a dangerous loophole allowing the Minister to permit it, rendering the prohibition weak. The environmental degradation from decades of oil spills and gas flaring has been catastrophic, destroying livelihoods and poisoning our ecosystem. Yet, there has never been a comprehensive environmental clean-up funded by the federal government or operators, with the much-publicized Ogoni cleanup being haphazard at best.

· In the Solid Minerals Sector: The Mining Act explicitly requires license holders to minimize environmental impact and rehabilitate mined land to its natural or predetermined state . While enforcement is a challenge, the legal obligation is clear and unequivocal, lacking the ministerial loopholes present in the PIA.

3. Security and Militarization: An Occupied Territory vs. Business as Usual

This is the most chilling aspect of the disparity.

*The Niger Delta: Our region is effectively under military occupation. The government has deployed the Joint Task Force (JTF) Operation Restore Hope since 2002 to secure oil infrastructure and prevent local refining. This militarization turns our communities into war zones, with our people subjected to human rights abuses, all to protect oil assets while denying us the benefits from them.

*The Solid Minerals Sector: There is no JTF in mining states. Despite widespread illegal mining, the federal government only announced plans for mining marshals as recently as March 2024, and even that has not been fully activated. This represents a deliberate non-militarization of the solid minerals sector, allowing for a more permissive environment that stands in stark contrast to the repression in the Niger Delta.

4. The Grand Larceny of Resource Allocation: 3% vs. 30%

The PIA commits the ultimate act of resource injustice by allocating a meager 3% of OPEX to host communities who bear 100% of the burden, while allocating a whopping 30% of NNPC Ltd.’s profit to explore for oil in so-called “frontier basins”. These basins are predominantly located in the North. This means that the wealth generated from the Niger Delta’s suffering is being used to subsidize the search for oil in other regions, with no guarantee of success. This is not national development; it is state-sponsored resource colonialism.

Table: Summary of Legislative Disparacies Against the Niger Delta

POLICY AREA

1. Niger Delta (Petroleum Industry Act)

2. Solid Minerals Region (Mining Act)

3. ⁠Implied Status of the Niger Delta

HOST COMMUNITY BENEFITS

1. 3% of Operetor’s Annual OPEX (Operational Expenditure)

2. ⁠Community Development Agreements (CDA)

3. ⁠A cost center to be managed

ENVIRONMENTAL REMEDIATION

1. Weak penalties, ministerial loopholes, no comprehensive cleanup

2. ⁠Clear legal obligation for rehabilitation

3. ⁠A sacrifice zone

SECURITY APPROACH

1. Militarize (Joint Task Force)

2. ⁠Non-militarized (Planned Marshals)

3. ⁠An occupied territory

RESOURCE CONTROL

1. Absolute federal control, no local participation

2. ⁠De facto tolerance of local mining

3. ⁠A conquered territory

REVENUE ALLOCATION

1. Wealth diverted to Frontier Basin (30%)

2. ⁠Benefits Largely retained within region

3. ⁠A colony to be exploited

Conclusion and Demand

The evidence is irrefutable. The PIA and the Mining Act, when read side-by-side, reveal a Nigeria that operates a two-tiered system of resource justice. For the rest of Nigeria, there is a pretension of cooperation and benefit-sharing. For the Niger Delta, there is only extraction, militarization, and legislative neglect.

We, therefore, demand the following:

1. Immediate Legislative Harmonization: The National Assembly must initiate an amendment to the PIA to bring its community benefit provisions, environmental obligations, and ownership principles in line with the more equitable standards of the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act. This includes, as a minimum, a review of the 3% and 30% allocations.

2. Demilitarization of the Niger Delta: The Federal Government must immediately withdraw the Joint Task Force from the Niger Delta and adopt a civil and regulated security approach, consistent with the approach in the solid minerals sectors.

3. True Federalism and Resource Control: The long-term solution to this perennial crisis is a return to the practice of true federalism and derivation-based resource control, as practiced in the First Republic, where regions managed their resources for their development.

The Niger Delta is not a colony of Nigeria. We can no longer accept laws that treat our people and our environment as sacrificial lambs for national unity. Enough is enough.

Signed:

Professor Benjamin Okaba

President, Ijaw National Congress (INC) Global

August 23, 2025

The Ijaw National Congress (INC), under my leadership, has taken note of the recent statement by his Excellency, Rt.Hon Sheriff Oborevwori, Governor of Delta State, announcing the award of reconstruction of the dual carriageway with reinforced concrete from the Spare Parts Market U-TURN, Effurun, to after Ohore Junction, before Omenta Bridge, to CCECC.

The INC commends the governor for his bold and visionary infrastructure strides, particularly the rapid execution of large-scale projects across Urhobo land, including dual carriageway, flyovers, and storm water drain networks. These projects are not only laudable but also demonstrate the governor’s commitment to modernising critical transport corridors and easing mobility for citizens in those areas.

However, as a pan-ijaw body, we cannot overlook the perpetual neglect and abandonment of the Ayakoromor Bridge project and the long demand road linkage from Warri through Ogbe-ijoh to Odimodi and Ogulagha-a critical artery to the ijaw heartland and the nations economic nerve centre in oil and gas production. This deliberate sidelining of ijaw communities, despite their overwhelming contribution to Nigeria’s energy wealth, is unacceptable and smacks of systemic marginalisation.

It is both disheartening and provocative that while billions of naira of our common partrimony are being channeled into infrastructural upgrade across Urhobo territories, projects of equal, if not greater national significance sited in Ijaw areas are left to rot.

The Ayakoromor bridge, in particular, has become a symbol of broken promises and political insensitivity – a project flagged off with much funfair in 2014 is now left to rot in abandonment, cutting off riverine Ijaw communities from meaningful economic integration of Delta State.

We, therefore, call on Governor Oborevwori to rise above partican or ethnic considerations and urgently prioritise the completion of Ayakoromor bridge and continue to extend roads connecting Warri to the riverine areas, either constructing Ayakoromor-Gbekebor-Obotebe-Burutu-Ofougbene-Forcados-Odimodi-Ogulagha route or the Ogbe-Ijoh-Isaba-Ayakoromor/Gbekebor-Obotebe-Burutu-Ofougbene-Forcados-Odimodi-Ogulagha route. These projects are not mere demands of a people; they are essential Lifelines that will unlock commerce, facilitate energy logistics, and address decades of infrastructural injustice in Delta state.

The INC is not against the development of any part of Delta State. On the contrary, we applaud progress wherever it is recorded. But equity, fairness, and justice demand that Ijaw communities – who bear the environmental brunt of oil exploitation, pollution, and hosts key national economic assets such as the Forcados and Escravos Oil Terminals which contributes collossally to Delta’s towering federal allocation must not continue to be treated as people under apparthide rule or second-class citizens in capital developmental planning. Inter-Community and internal community roads are very good, but they take our people nowhere.

Governor Oborevwori, the INC implores you to remember your oath to govern all parts of Delta State equitably and your repeated promises to complete Ayakoromor bridge. Only then can your vision of rebuilding a “Stronger Delta together” be truly inclusive and enduring.

Signed:

Prof. Benjamin Ogele Okaba

President, Ijaw National Congress (global).

10th August, 2025

Our attention has been drawn to a pseudo and non-existent Itsekiri group under the camouflage of Warri Youth Council, WYC, to blackmail the revered and most performing administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Dr Dennis Otuaro. We are not perturbed of their criminal agenda, knowing fully well the Presidency and all well-meaning Niger Delta people could attest for the credible performance of Dr Otuaro. It is becoming evident that the incessant attacks by the Itsekiri on the Administrator of the PAP Dr. Otuaro is borne out of primordial sentiments because he is a Gbaramatu Ijaw man.

However, it is ignorance that makes the cat to attack a lion for a fight and believe that they are of the same breed if they all have black spotted skins, what the Itsekiris miscreants and mischief makers do not know is that IPDI is a revered rights advocacy group, known for its proactiveness in the defense of Niger Delta rights against oppression and marginalization over the years, so describing IPDI as faceless group is laughable and it shows the level of ignorance among Itsekiri youths.

It is succinct to state unequivocally that Itsekiris are trouble makers, being descendants of a banished prince Giniwa of Benin. We are still maintaining our earlier stand that the itsekiris were not part of the Presidential Amnesty Programme during the proclamation but they were later considered and included into the Amnesty Programme following an appeal by their daughter who was married to the late National Security Adviser, Gen Owoye Andrew Azazi. We state further that the Itsekiri should not abuse the privilege but be grateful to Dr Otuaro for the additional slots given to them to add to the earlier Five Hundred Slots.

We wish to reiterate that no disarmament and demobilization of the presidential Amnesty programme was held in Koko, Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State, the first, second and third phases of the programme were held in Agbarho and 3 battalions in Delta State.

The Itsekiris only submitted a political list of their Five hundred slots given to them by the then administrator of the program, Dr Kingsley KuKu, and that should not in any way be seen as disarmament.

It is an abrupt and reckless attempt by the Itsekiris to now forcefully be crying for inclusion through blackmail, the Itsekiris, who distanced themselves from the Presidential Amnesty Programme only to have a change of mind after seeing the success of the program do not merit a single slot. We are aware that they wrote several publications to applaud the federal government for disarming the Ijaw people, alleged that the Ijaw killed their people. They stated further that Itsekiris were not militants and will not embrace the program, stressing that their youths were enlightened, educated and peaceful but unfortunately the same people are now shamelessly crying for inclusion. It is public knowledge that the Itsekiris declined the Presidential Amnesty granted by the late President Yar Adua. Anyone who is interested can access the body of information in the public domain.

The Itsekiris can’t eat their cake and have it. They are a people of double standard, they speak with both sides of their mouths. We are not surprised about the new tactics and strategy of these ungrateful lots. One may be tempted to ask whether their monarch, the Olu of Itsekiri is providing guidance to the Itsekiri youths, or is he the one instigating them because it is playing out that the average Itsekiri youth is lacking guidance.

It is worthy of note that it was not the National Assembly that compelled the then administrator Dr KuKu to accept the Itsekiris into the amnesty program, their petition failed. The National Assembly after hearing from KuKu saw that the Itsekiri didn’t have a case, the then National Assembly only appealed to President Jonathan and Hon. Kuku on humanitarian grounds for the Itsekiris to be included on the basis of impacted community and 500 places was negotiated for them, case was dismissed.

Also their daughter who was married to the then NSA, late General Owoye Andrew Azazi influenced with the appeal. Those slots were given to the Itsekiris for training and not for monthly stipends. It is dubious and criminal to claim otherwise, more so when such claims are predicated on overseas scholarships. Not even those who paid the ultimate price for the Niger Delta struggle lay claim to such exclusivity.

The Itsekiri nation is known for blackmail, mischief making, campaign of calumny, envy. The relentless attacks and pull down attitudes against Dr. Otuaro, is a script by the Itsekiris well known to Niger Deltans and the rest of Nigeria. The PAP Administrator shouldn’t be detered nor respond to such correspondences which are full of lies and more lies. They cannot cow him to get what they want. He is a son of the struggle and can’t be derailed by blackmail and peddling of falsehoods by the Itsekiris.

We wish to state again that it is not the Itsekiri’s right to benefit from the Presidential Amnesty Program since they were not part of those captured by the Presidential Amnesty ab initio, what they enjoy now is a privilege given to them by the magnanimity of President Goodluck Jonathan Presidency. It is not the Itsekiri that produces the bulk of crude oil in the Niger Delta, the Ijaws are the major producers of oil revenue to the federal coffers and not the Itsekiris. So it is mischievous for them to claim PAP delegates are being paid with oil money from Itsekiri. It is an empirical and irrefutable truth to say the funds are derived from Ijaw land and not from Itsekiri.

We state again that the Itsekiri does not have the monopoly of violence, and can’t threaten to cow constituted authorities with threats to achieve their selfish demands, no body is afraid of protest, if they like the full Itsekiri nation should go to Abuja to protest, since it is their stock in trade. They don’t build nor create, just like the biblical story that took place in King Solomon’s palace, 1 Kings 3:16 – 28 of the woman who falsely claimed to be the mother and wants the child cut into two while the true mother with love wanted the baby to be intact and alive even if it means losing the child momentarily, the Itsekiris inherently loves to lay false claims, throughout their history subterfuge has been adopted and elevated as statecraft and when they fail they opt for destruction. It is an evil that must be called for what it is and be stopped.

The Itsekiri nation should not provoke the Ijaw youths, we can match them quid pro quo and make a quick walk over them from anywhere they are protesting against Dr Otuaro if the need arises.

We are using this medium to call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the National Assembly and the National Security Adviser to caution the Itsekiris and their youths, if the government fails to call them to order, their activities may disrupt peace and stability in the Niger Delta.

Signed

Comrade Ozobo Austin

National president

Peter Luke

National Secretary