Avengers, MEND bicker over truce talks with government

Avoid opportunists, ex-militant cautions

The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) is in a war of attrition with the rival Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) over who gets what in the ongoing peace negotiation with state and federal governments.

The NDA, at the weekend, condemned the purported efforts of some former militants operating under MEND for allegedly acting the script of some elements in government bent at causing confusion with a view to scuttling the ongoing truce talks.

The Avengers, in a statement on their website, alleged that Ebikabowei Ben (Boyloaf), Ayiri Emami, Timipre Sylva and Adams Oshiomhole conspired and promoted the creation of a “political MEND” which purportedly named a team to negotiate with the Federal Government.

“We are making the last appeal and warning to this so-called MEND to excuse the NDA from their criminal ways and gang-ups. Nobody can ambush the struggle, the world knows that Boyloaf and his group have been settled since 2009 of which he is still collecting stipends for ghost names in the presidential amnesty programme (PAP),” the group claimed.

MEND had recently alleged that “the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) is the vehicle currently being used by Niger Delta political elite and associates of former President Goodluck Jonathan to destabilise President Buhari’s government. It was these political juggernauts who are loathe to see President Buhari gain a foothold in the region.”

An accusation which the NDA roundly denied.

Meanwhile, an erstwhile militant and leader of the Ifalibabou Revolutionary Movement, General Keithy Sese, has cautioned government to be wary of
the people or group it is negotiating with in the current effort to douse tension in the Niger Delta.

Sese, also known as Nomukeme within the fold of ex-agitators, gave the warning in a statement at the weekend.

The former militant, who was controlling Foropa-Middleton and territories in Southern Ijaw, Local Council of Bayelsa State, urged government not to dialogue with those he described as “political jobbers and opportunists.”

He continued: “My advice to the Federal Government is whatever ought to be done in Niger Delta should be done with the utmost sagacity and exigency. The
consciousness of the people has risen to a point where even if a devil takes up the struggle for our liberation, we will certainly queue behind him with requisite support and effort.”