Kumuyi faults military action in N/Delta

Clement Idoko, Abuja - 08.06.2009

THE General Superintendent of Deeper Life Christian Ministry, Pastor Williams Kumuyi, has called for cessation of military offensive in the Niger Delta, even as he urged the militants to lay down their arms.

He warned against allowing the current military action to degenerate further and urged both the Federal Government and the people of the region to return to the drawing board and engage in dialogue and negotiation to arrive at an ultimate solution to the lingering crisis.

Addressing news men in Abuja at the weekend on the forth coming Abuja Night of Power and Ministers’ Empowerment conference, billed to hold on Friday 19th June, Kumuyi observed that the use of force by the Joint Military Task Force (JTF), would not yield any positive result.

He said: “First, we have to understand that Nigeria is a united federation and nobody is happy at the destruction of lives and property in the region.

“When a particular approach is not solving the problem, then we need to come to the drawing board and say, can we think through and dialogue together and see what approach will likely solve the problem,” he stated.

While calling on the government to explore other options, he said it was ennobling for the government to take examples from other nations of the world, who have had similar problem of civil disturbance, militant activities and a host of others, pointing out that dialogue remained the viable option in resolving the Niger Delta crisis.

He said “Good enough, there is no problem in the country that other nations have not experienced and then, we should ask ourselves, how did they resolve this kind of problem, be it militants fighting for their right and the federal government saying no, that this is the way that we expected it to work.

“I think the best solution is for the parties involved — the government, the militants and every section concerned — and see how to move the nation forward. And as we dialogue and negotiate, I believe that that will bring an ultimate solution,” Kumuyi added.