President Muhammadu Buhari has cancelled his widely publicized Thursday trip to Rivers State for the inauguration of clean up of Ogoni land.
It was gathered that the President will now be represented at the occasion by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Amina Mohammed, Nigeria’s Mister of the Environment had yesterday confirmed that President Buhari will visit Ogoni land to flag-off cleanup of oil spills in the area as recommended in the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report. “Buhari would return to Ogoni land where he inaugurated a fish pond in 1984 where the once flourishing pond regrettably had been destroyed by oil pollution.”
The presidency has not confirmed the cancellation the much anticipated visit to the Nigeria’s oil producing region which has been rocked by violence and renewed militancy spearheaded by Niger Delta Avengers, NDA as at the time of writing this story.
The group’s string of attacks on oil installation in the region has cut down Nigeria’s oil production from a high of about 2 million barrels per day just about two months ago to less than one million barrels per day.
A man who claimed to be a spokesperson for the group which is now demanding autonomy for the Niger Delta had warned had threatened to kill the President should he step foot in the Niger Delta region.
“Buhari is trying to visit Ogoniland, but he should sign his death warrant before coming to Port Harcourt or try to visit any state of the Niger Delta community, Biafra land,” the suspected NDA member said during the phone call as he was quoted IBTimes UK, which also claimed that the suspected NDA member made the claim during conversation with one of the hosts of UK-based Radio Biafra. Nigerian military however dismissed the threat, describing members of NDA as criminals.
“Buhari can go wherever he wants”, says Brigadier-General Rabe Abubakar, Director, Defence Information. It was also hoped that the President will use the visit will calm the still frayed nerves in the Niger Delta where many have still not gotten over the pains of his defeat of Goodluck Jonathan, their son in the 2015 presidential elections.
The renewed militancy and attacks on oil facilities is believed to have been partly spurred by the pain of that defeat.
The Rivers State visit will be the second to be cancelled by the President in the past three weeks and is sure to generate fresh rumours about the state of his health. Except of course, the presidency is able to come up with credible reasons for the cancellation.