Contending Issues in the Niger Delta Crisis of Nigeria - Journal of ...

Dr. William Ehwarieme
located close to the bifurcation of the Niger River at Aboh, while the
western and eastern boundaries are around the Benin River and Imo
River respectively. (Environmental Resources Management Limited
[EMRL], 1997).
Defined in this strict geographical sense, the area would be
made up of six states namely, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Cross River
and Akwa Ibom. The land area however, extends to cover 75,000
square kilometres and includes three additional states namely, Ondo,
Imo and Abia for purposes of delineating oil producing areas under
the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Act. This chapter
adopts the latter definition of the Niger Delta because kidnapping has
also been prevalent in the three states, although most of the cases
have occurred in the six core states particularly Rivers and Bayelsa.
For some purposes in this chapter, core Niger Delta would be used to
differentiate the six from the three states.
The Niger Delta has been described as “mostly a flat, low-lying,
swampy basin criss-crossed by a dense network of meandering rivers
and creeks” with four broad ecological zones which are, “from the
coast inland, the coastal sandy barrier ridge zone, the mangrove
swamp zone, the freshwater swamp zone and the lowland rainforest
zone.” (UNDP, 2006:44). This naturally makes fishing and agriculture
the traditional occupation of the people. Differences in the ecological
zones however, necessitated some forms of occupational
specialization. Thus, while the people in the lowland rainforest zone
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