The Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, has accused the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, of using all available means to block peace efforts to address the crisis plaguing Rivers State.
This was as PANDEF urged President Bola Tinubu to intervene and ensure Wike comes to the negotiation table before the situation in Rivers State spirals further out of control.
The chairman of PANDEF’s Peace and Reconciliation Committee and former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Obong Victor Attah, while addressing newsmen on Friday in Abuja, said that all efforts to engage Wike, despite President Bola Tinubu’s appeal for dialogue to restore stability in Rivers State, have proved abortive.
Flanked at the briefing by PANDEF National Chairman Ambassador Godknows Igali, Attah lamented that Wike’s unwillingness to meet with the committee is obstructing efforts to de-escalate tensions in the state.
The former Akwa-Ibom governor detailed how PANDEF, a regional body established in 2016 to champion the interests of the Niger Delta, had taken proactive steps to mediate in the political crisis in Rivers State.
“Following a Special General Assembly in Port Harcourt in October 2024, the group set up a seven-member High-Level Peace and Reconciliation Committee.
“Notably, the committee excluded any representatives from Rivers State to ensure neutrality.
“In a determination to prevent a full-blown crisis from developing, we constituted a team of eminent elders from across the South-South region,” Attah said.
Attah, who noted that a PANDEF delegation met with Tinubu on March 11, 2025 to seek his intervention, said that the delegation made it clear that the success of any peace process hinged on Wike’s willingness to come to the table.
