Elders and leaders of the Niger Delta on Wednesday staged a peaceful demonstration in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, against the alleged maltreatment of the region by the Federal Government.

They said people of the region cannot have the blessings of God and be suffered by men.

The leaders, under the auspices of Presidents-General of Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities, took their protest to the gate of the Government House.

The protesters condemned the non-inclusion of the oil-producing states of the region in the N621.237bn Federal Government Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme to be carried out by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

They also rejected the three per cent host communities fund in the Petroleum Industry Act, and demanded more community participation in the management of the fund while decrying the allocation of 30 per cent for exploration activities in the frontier basins.

President of the Conference Presidents-General of the Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities, Prof Benjamin Okaba, who led the protest, said the people of the region producing the bulk of Nigeria’s economic mainstay “are visited with anger, hunger, frustration, disillusionment, marginalisation.”

Okaba, while presenting the group’s protest letter to the Secretary to Bayelsa State Government,  Konbowei Benson, said the Federal Government had over the years made poverty the lifestyle of the people, adding that “we are at the negative end of what we produce in this nation.”

He said, “The ethnic nationalities of the Niger Delta have decided today to come out for a protest march to register our displeasure over the perpetual maltreatment of our people. We have made several pleas, written petitions and read out communiques, but it’s like all of these have fallen on deaf ears.

“The iniquities of the Federal Government against the Niger Delta people are getting too much. The time has come for us to move beyond rhetoric. The time has come for us to take action and we are using this protest as a warning to the Federal Government that, enough is enough. We can’t have the blessings of God and be suffered by men.”

Okaba, who is also the President of Ijaw National Congress  urged the Bayelsa governor to convey the grievances of Niger Delta leaders to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), saying “we are tired, we are becoming restless because we are finding it difficult to calm the peace in the region.”

Benson commended the protesters for conducting themselves peacefully and promised to deliver their message to the state governor, Douye Diri.