MEND ex-leaders deny militants’ complicity, blame criminals
THE Senate Committee on Petroleum Oil and Gas has condemned in totality the fresh blowing up of pipelines in the Niger Delta region.

At a press briefing yesterday in Abuja, Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), Senator Tayo Alasoadura condemned the unpatriotic act of some vandals, who blow up pipelines at this time of national emergency when the dwindling price of oil and the insurgency in the northeast of Nigeria is confronting our nation.

Alasoadura said, “It is very disheartening that at a time when all hands should be on deck to revive the economy and ensure the survival of the country, some people could decide at this point in time in the history of the nation to further sabotage the efforts of the present administration to bring some sanity into our country.

“It is therefore apt for the Senate to condemn strongly and make an ambiguous language this dastardly act that portends to send the hands of the clock backwards.”

Coming on the heels of the National Assembly’s concern, former leaders of the defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, from the Niger Delta, yesterday denied that militants from the region were responsible for the recent bomb attacks on oil and gas installations in Delta State, saying the attack was carried out by criminals.

Speaking under the aegis of the Leadership Peace and Cultural Development Initiative (LPCDI), led by Chief Reuben Wilson popularly known as General Pastor, the ex-militants insisted that the claims against the frontline ex-militant leader, High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo and other ex-militant leader were not true and misplaced.

He said those behind the attacks were criminal elements out to disrupt the peace in the region and throw the Federal Government against the people of the region.

According to Wilson, “what happened was not carried out by ex-militants. The world should not label the ex-militants with evil deeds”.