Warri declared disaster zone

Delta State Governor James Ibori has declared the troubled oil town of Warri a disaster zone so that his administration can provide relief for residents made homeless by last week’s intercommunal fighting.

In a broadcast on Delta State television at the weekend, he announced that a Warri Urban Development Authority would be set up to rehabilitate the town. The body would also assess the damage to homes, identify their owners and provide some form of relief aid.

Youths, many of whom had been involved in last week’s fighting that left up to 200 people dead, would get vocational training and work, he said. He also announced plans to buy back guns from the warring Ijaw, Urhobo and Itsekiri youths.

Underscoring these efforts to bring real change to the poverty-stricken Niger Delta, President Olusegun Obasanjo announced at the weekend that a new body was being created to build up the area, Nigerian radio reported on Saturday.

“We have reached an agreement on a body that will be responsible for the development of the Niger Delta,” he said in Port Harcourt after a meeting with state governors and community leaders in the area. “We have also reached an agreement on what we should do in the immediate,” he added.

Details of this deal would, he said, be made public shortly.