More militant groups declare ceasefire in Niger Delta
Niger Delta Avengers
• Want harassment of members stopped
• Fighters attack oil pipeline in Warri
More militant groups in the Niger Delta have announced ceasefire, on a condition that security agencies should stop forthwith harassment and intimidation of their suspected members.
But peace is still elusive as yet another group, Niger Delta Greenland and Justice Mandate, has attacked a major delivery line operated by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) in Udu Local Council of Delta State. The group also warned that no repair should be carried out on the damaged pipeline.
Following the Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark-led peace initiative in the region, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) had, at the weekend, resolved to end all forms of hostilities, including jettisoning its avowed plan to declare a republic.
The group’s spokesman, Brig-Gen. Mudoch Aginigbo, announced on Saturday that it was ending hostilities and would support the peace initiative.
Also following the Pan Niger Delta Coastal States Consultative Meeting convened by Clark, the Reformed Egbesu Fraternities comprising Egbesu Boys of the Niger Delta, Egbesu Red Water Lions and Egbesu Mightier Fraternity announced yesterday a 60-day ceasefire.
They commended the convener and all the traditional rulers who participated in the meeting which the militant groups said reviewed the bombing campaigns against critical oil infrastructure and realised they were hurting not only Nigeria but Niger Deltans as well.
The Spokesmen of the Reformed Egbesu Fraternities, General Tony Alagbakeriowei and Commander Ebi Abakoromor, however underscored the big place of the neglected region in the country’s political economy. “ We are conscious of the fact that the Niger Delta alone accounts for 70 per cent of the annual national budget, 67 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product and 80 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange, yet the Niger Delta has nothing to show and remains plagued by serious environmental degradation and social dislocation of our traditional and customary rights.
“Between 1957 and 2016, over two trillion barrels of the finest quality and grade as well as 1.2 trillion SCF of gas have been exploited and exported from the Niger Delta, yet we remain the poorest in all ramifications among all the oil- and gas-producing regions the world over.
“Angered by the above basic facts and worsened by the realisation that over 90 per cent of the Oil Mining Leases (OML) are owned by Northerners and the South West indigenes, we commenced our symbolic protests in the creeks with a view to unilaterally declaring a sovereign state of the Niger Delta on August 1, 2016.
“Aware that our collective strength and efforts no doubt have had a very negative impact on the economy of the country, coupled with our commitment and determination to continue with our bombing of oil and gas infrastructure and the declaration of the Niger Delta Peoples Republic, we have been pressured and appealed to by the Niger Delta Coastal States Stakeholders Consultative Meeting convened by Chief Dr E. K. Clark and most importantly, the Niger Delta Dialogue Contact Group led by His Royal Majesty, King Alfred Diette Spiff.
“Nigerians from all shades of opinion pleaded that we come to the negotiation table. In view of the persistent pleas and appeals, we the Consultative Council of the Reformed Egbesu Fraternities unilaterally declare cessation of hostilities for a period of 60 days to enable the Niger Delta stakeholders to commence an all-embracing dialogue with the Federal Government.
“However, under this 60-day period, we call on all relevant security agencies to stop forthwith all military harassment and intimidation of suspected members of these and other organisations.
“We caution against the preconceived notion of the service chiefs of the armed forces who had persistently stated recourse to military option if dialogue fails. This, to the best of our knowledge, is an act of intimidation and a ploy to truncate the negotiation process if at all there is sincerity and commitment on the part of the Federal Government,” the group said.
In a statement, the Niger Delta Greenland and Justice Mandate said: “The formidable strike team in charge of ‘Operation Zero’ brought down another major trunk/delivery line operated by NPDC in Udu Local Council area (Urhobo) of Delta State. We would also like to warn that no repair should take place on that pipeline pending when signals come from us.
“Peace cannot be realised in an unjust environment. Like we said from the onset, the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate is not just about causing calamity and delighting in chaos, rather a child of circumstance, born to correct an injustice that has lived with us, from the time of our fathers.”
‘‘We are in this struggle, not to create any acrimony with our friends and brothers in the riverine axis, who are equal citizens of this over-sapped region, but to call the attention of the world to our peculiar experience; that we, as people of diverse tongues and orientation, have kept faith with both the Nigerian government and oil multinationals over the years, by being peaceful, patient and law-abiding all through the years, but have in turn been abused and abandoned by these same supposed partners. They have all along taken our quietness and disposition for peace and choice for orderliness for granted. We have watched and seen that they only encourage lawlessness and violence.’’
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13 Comments
Hmm…Is the woollen mammoth of Okrika and the PDP running out of money or the kitchen has suddenly become too hot for the illiterate and her evil spirits possessed co political travellers? Buhari will not bribe anyone not to destroy their own environment, you are the ones who live there not him. Jonathan had six years to turn your fortunes around, make a mini Dubai, Florida, the Bahamas or even Tokyo out of the SS but instead turned out a disgusting failure taking over the title as the most clueless, incompetent and naive excuse for a president to walk the face of this earth. A man not even competent enough to be a primary school headmaster imposed on Nigeria by Obasanjo!
When you are tired being militants you will find something useful to do with your miserable excuses for lives. Jonathan. Orubebe, E K Clark etc´s children are schooling overseas with money meant to bring you better lives and having robbed you successfully have also succeeded in sending you to the creeks to die of malaria etc. It is too bad you failed to evolve like the rest of sane human being but degraded your mentality to lower than that of Apes! You have governors in your states, Bayelsa, Rivers and Delta receive more allocations than most states in the federation but are among the poorest lacking in everything resembling basic infrastructures. That is not down to Buhari, his APC government or resource control but the fact that criminals and brain dead morons are the ones running your joints. Fight your governors and their demon fathers/mothers and you will have a better life, fighting the federal is futile because yours is not the only federating unit.
Buhari will not bribe anyone to have common sense, it is not in his nature to do so. PDP- the congregation of the descendants of demons, vile and everything else wrong with mankind is gone! Jonathan is not the first person to loss in an election even though he is the first to run a bazaar with state resources on the face of this earth in his incompetency and mediocrity. Good riddance to bad rubbish, he is gone!
Thank you brothers for giving peace a chance. Let’s hope it will be appreciated by the government. Nigeria must understand that it can never be business as usual again. Niger Delta must be developed with speed.
Was the word speed not invented yet when Jonathan was president?
Who are you mister? Are you one of these blood-sucking savages from the North, so-called Fulani-herdsmen, with the blood of so many innocent, poor rural Nigerian farmers in your hands or one of their sons or even their relative, disguising yourself with the pseudonym “Artful Dodger”??? If true, then you are only dodging your shadows. God has seen all of you – cold-blooded murderers in action against poor, innocent villagers – in States that neither belong to you nor your ancestors!!! All in the name of “crazing reserves”? Woe betide all of you; because heavenly judgment will descend on you all! If I may ask you mister “Artful Dodger”, how many farmers have the said Niger Delta Avengers killed; how many villages have they burnt down & destroyed anywhere in Nigeria? God will surely judge you all for your wanton attrocities. Amen.
The grouses expressed by the militants are real and genuineand unfortunately they have been left unattended to by government over the decades.I think first and foremost we should hailthe people for bringingthis issues to natural consciousness.
That said, it seems we have a some commitments in this present government, so the militants should seriously explorethe option of dialogue, whilethe government too should enter intoa functional rapprochement with stakeholders in the entire Niger Delta to genuinely address their concerns.
Nigeria is ours, Nigeria we serve
They carried out their THREATS for losing the Presidential Election to Buhari.
They should dialogue with their sponsors.
Your Chicken has come home to roost. You suddenly realize our waters are polluted through pipeline vandalism, you suddenly realize we can no longer fish and our fisher men are idle, you suddenly realize our ecosystem is damaging we can no longer farm, you suddenly realize the Igbos are just using us to achieve their own selfish ambitions, you suddenly realize that if war starts with Nigeria, Asari Dokubo and his family will escape to cotonou, Benin Republic where he has his investments, you suddenly realize that our brother was in power for 6 years with nothing to show for it other than giving us
fish instead of teaching us how to teach. Brothers let’s wise up!
Jonathan was not in power for six years. STOP THE LIE! 5 years and a few weeks is not 6 years. STOP THE LIE of APC.
Oh God, another one of the senseless moron who does not even know the cause of his ailment. Stupidity must run in your lineage! Even if he was in power for a term, that is enough for a sensible person to develop the SS.
To say that the son of a Region was the president, and that he should have used his presidential powers to transform that region is another way of saying that you do not understand how the current political system in Nigeria works. It also means that OBJ should have transformed the south-west, or even otta. If this wrong assumption is to be explored further, PMB must also transform the North-East. I promise you that this will not be the case. In a democracy, those who spend(in this case, the executive arm of govt, headed by the president) are not the persons who approve what to spend on(NASS). This means that the president, no matter how he wants to try, cannot say ”i want to spend the entire budgetary provision on my region”. I advise that you study how appropriations and govt expenditures are determined before you comment on these issues.
You can also make your contributions without abuses.
So he was Present but Absent in Power.
To which negotiation table are they coming.
Who do they want to blackmail ?
Buhari and Nigerians I hope.
Because they lost an election and they carried out the threats they issued at and from the Government House in Bayelsa before the Presidential election and their Sponsors have asked them to ceasefire which they have obeyed . That can’t be used for negotiation as it would amount to submitting to pure BLACKMAIL.
Many thanks for the devastation. Now you can retreat to you canoes and expect golden rain. How stupid! You will be hunted down like vermin. You have the temerity to complain of harassment? Get real if you a modicum of thinking cells, you crawling muddy amphibians.
We will review and take appropriate action.