Ekekeee can confirm that a Sahara Reporters story on Tuesday, to the effect that governors from the South-South states asked for corruption charges against certain eminent persons from the region to be dropped in lieu of peace in the creeks, is correct.

A sophisticated militant group called the Niger Delta Avengers, has been blowing up oil and gas installations in the delta, throwing the Nigerian economy into a tailspin.

The South-South Niger delta states are Cross River, Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Akwa Ibom and Edo.

Respected economist Bismarck Rewane, was the first to draw attention to the nexus between Buhari’s all out war against corruption and the heightened vandalism in the creeks. Rewane had asked incredulously: “what are they (Niger Delta Avengers) avenging?”

Former president Goodluck Jonathan hails from the Niger Delta and admitted this week that he’s aware that the Buhari administration is investigating him for alleged corruption.

A raft of other former Jonathan aides and acolytes from the delta like Godsday Orubebe, Kingsley Kuku and Tompolo, have corruption charges hanging round their necks.

Tompolo has reportedly escaped Nigeria’s shores and has since found a new abode in Libya.

On Tuesday, a federal high court in Abuja remanded Jonathan’s cousin, Azibaola Robert, in Kuje prison over a $40m scam.

Across the delta, certain persons who took advantage of Jonathan’s roots in the region, pillaged the nation’s finances under his watch, sometimes through dubious contracts, according to anti-graft investigators.

The deal

When Vice President Yemi Osinbajo sat down with the governors from the Niger Delta late Tuesday on the orders of President Muhammadu Buhari who is currently on vacation in the UK, one of their demands was that some of the corruption charges against persons from the region, be dropped by the EFCC, Ekekeee was reliably informed by a source in the presidency.

The governors said until the corruption charges are dropped, the militants won’t stop torching oil installations, according to an array of presidency sources, strengthening assumptions in certain quarters that some of the governors are in the know of the identity of the Avengers.

“Only the governors of Cross River and Edo States, opposed the trade-off. But the VeePee clearly told them without mincing words that their demand was an impossibility because the federal government won’t interfere with the operations of the EFCC under Buhari”.

The Cross River governor, Ben Ayade was represented at the talks by his deputy Prof Ivara Esu.

“The governors probably thought they could intimidate the Vice President since the President was away, but they got the shock of their lives in Osinbajo’s steely resolve and non-equivocation on the subject”, our source added.

When the governors emerged from the meeting with the Vice President and service chiefs, no mention was made of this deal, with Dr Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta State) only listing other resolutions, like the pull out of the military in the region, as a prelude to halting the heinous activities of the militants.

Depressed Buhari

Other presidency sources spoken to for this story have revealed to Ekekeee that President Buhari cuts a depressed figure these days because sometimes, he appears like a lone ranger in the uphill task to rid Nigeria of decades-old institutional graft.

“Baba (PMB) is partially depressed at the moment”, said a presidency source. “He is also a bit overwhelmed by the level of corruption even from those around him. People around him that he reposed so much trust in, are carrying out corrupt practices under his nose too.

“For one, the secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, is as fantastically corrupt as they come; cutting deals left, right and center. I hope Baba returns to deal with all of them”, our source added.

In February, this medium did an exclusive story on the corrupt tendencies of the SGF.