Mrs. Ibiba Amachree Opuiyo

Rural women bear the brunt of the various challenges confronting the beleaguered Niger Delta region and should therefore be considered as priority in empowerment programmes by government at all levels, especially the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

This is the position of the Woman Leader of an advocacy group, Niger Delta Advocates for Peace and Sustainable Development (NDAPSD), Ibifa Amachree Opuiyo, who implored the NDDC to consider the women, mostly, the rural widows, who are suffering across the nine oil bearing states.

She further argued that women in the rural areas are dying out of poverty and neglect, added to the abridgement of their livelihoods by the negative effects of years of oil exploitation, which has mostly destroyed the Niger Delta’s ecosystem.

She urged the current management of the NDDC to partner with the Niger Delta Advocates for Peace and Sustainable Development (NDAPSD), which is committed to the betterment of the lives of the women, mostly the widows in the region.

She also advised aggrieved women groups in the Niger Delta to eschew violence and seek crisis resolution mechanisms, pointing out that a peaceful environment attracts both government and companies for development.

In her tour to Rivers State to address women groups in the region, Mrs Ibifa Amachree Opuiyo advised the women to talk to their children to embrace the federal government amnesty and work in partnership with the NDDC and Amnesty office to achieve set objectives.

Mrs Ibifa Opuiyo promised to continue her tour of the region to spread the gospel of peace and sustainable development among women.