Buhari cancels trip at last minute to troubled oil-producing Niger Delta region

President Muhammadu Buhari has unexpectedly called off a visit to the oil-producing Niger Delta region where he was to have launched a pollution clean-up operation. He will be represented by his deputy.

President Muhammadu Buhari was due to visit Ogoniland on Thursday (02.06.2016) and the trip was called off at the very last moment.

No reason was given for the sudden change of plan but it comes in the wake of an upsurge in attacks on oil producing infrastructure in southern Nigera. Buhari will now be represented by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo

Speaking before the trip was cancelled, Liz Donnelly, Assistant Head of the Africa Programme at Chatham House, UK, told DW that this would have been a difficult visit. President Muhammadu Buahri, from the mainly Muslim Nigerian north, wouldn't necessarily receive a warm welcome in the predominantly Christian south.

"Nigeria's oil producing region voted for the now opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) [of former president Goodluck Jonathan] and Buhari is regarded with some mistrust, because of where he comes from, and also because of his history as a military ruler," she said.

This would have been Buhari's first trip to the oil producing south since he took office a yea ago.

DW