Amnesty Or Not, Attacks Continue - MEND

*Deal Provides Second Chance To Niger Delta Youths - Nwuche

By Innocent Anoruo (Lagos) and Harris-Okon Emmanuel, (Warri)

Even as President Umaru Yar´Adua on Thursday granted amnesty to repentant militants, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has said that its current assault tool tagged ”Hurricane Piper Alpha,” is still on course.

It was on a day the former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Chibudom Nwuche warned that the amnesty provides another chance for the restive Niger Delta youths to lead a better life.

MEND not only promised to continue with attacks, it also warned that it would frustrate the agreements which Nigeria signed with Russia last week when President Dmitri Medvedev visited.

”Mr. President, the agreements that you have signed in Abuja are worthless. MEND will ensure that they fail,” the spokesman, Jomo Gbomo warned on Saturday.

It promised to take the attacks to other parts of the country, including Abuja.

Since May 15, when the military´s Joint Task Force (JTF) battled the group, the members have been destroying oil facilities, which resulted in the production shut in of about 564,550 barrel per day, according to industry source.

Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) is reported to have suffered most as it lost about 340,000; Italian oil firm, Eni, lost about 80,000; while Chevron Nigeria Limited (CLN) lost about 11,500 barrels per day of oil output respectively.

The development had resulted in dwindling revenue from the oil export.

No fewer than 10 attacks have been carried out by MEND since June 6, when it commenced the operation.

The latest attack occurred on the Cawthorn Channel 1, 2 and 3 flow stations of Shell´s Bille/Krakama pipeline in Rivers State that feeds the Bonny export terminal even as the Abiteye Flow station in Warri South West has been frequently attacked.

Chevron closed its operations around Delta State, shutting in 100, 000 barrels per day of oil output. Last Wednesday, Eni followed suit, declaring a force majeure on oil exports from its Brass River terminal. It had shut in about 33,000 barrels of oil and 2 million cubic metres of gas per day output.

A source in JTF said the military troops have been lying low since the President pronounced amnesty.

On Friday, Chief of Defence Staff, Paul Dike, said JTF deployed in the Niger Delta would during the period of amnesty not initiate any military action against militants unless if attacked or in self-defence.

According to the source, the troops would only carry out other military assignments in the region and would stop temporarily the cordon and search it embarked upon to rescue the missing 18 soldiers and two foreign nationals.

JTF´s spokesman, Rabe Abubakar insisted that the soldiers, including two officers, are still alive and that until their bodies are recovered they could not be certified dead.

Meanwhile, Nwuche has said that the amnesty which the Federal Government granted the Niger Delta militants would provide the restive youths a second chance to improve on their lots.

Nwuche, who was in the saddle between 1999 and 2003 also advised government to be firm and clear on the resources to be made available for the implementation of the amnesty programmes so as not to send a wrong signal that some people are being invited and given money to jettison militancy.

Nwuche spoke in a telephone interview with Sunday Independent on Friday, a day the Rivers State government claimed the amnesty granted to the militants was an improvement on the earlier stance of governor Rotimi Amaechi against militancy and criminality in the Niger Delta, particularly in Rivers State.

The Rivers State government spoke through the media adviser to the governor, David Iyofor, who added that the state was in full support of the amnesty granted the militants by the Federal Government on Thursday.

”We are in support of it and to the extent that it is a follow up to the earlier position of the Rivers State governor to fight militancy and criminality in our area. We are optimistic the amnesty will affect all those involved in the illegal act, and who would be willing to dump the business for something more rewarding and credible,” Iyofor said.

Nwuche had also described the amnesty as ”a laudable programme capable of giving a second chance to the kiths and kin (youths) in the Niger Delta, who, feeling aggrieved over lack of development in the Niger Delta, took up arms.”

According to the former Deputy Speaker, the effort, if well implemented, ”will contribute meaningfully to the development of the area and arrest the cases of unrest for which the youths have come to be associated with over the years.”

However, Nwuche maintained that the government must do well to address the issues that brought militancy about in the first place.

In his thinking, government must invest in infrastructure, job creation, implementation of the local content policy in the oil and gas sector, whereby the Niger Delta people will have the opportunity of contributing and benefiting from the engineering works, lifting of oil and ownership of oil block whenever the need arises.

On the N50 billion which government hopes to make available for the prosecution of the idea, Nwuche suggested that there is need for government to explain in details, that the idea behind the amnesty was not to share money meant for developmental purposes to some people. ”That will be necessary not to create room for speculation and that the intent is not for settlement.”

Nwuche also advised government to constantly engage the Niger Delta leaders in meaningful dialogue regarding the area, insisting that, ”government must work hand in hand with the Niger Delta leadership for sustained peace.”

On whether government´s plan on the office that will manage the amnesty issues will not conflict with the role of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Niger Delta ministry, Nwuche said

NDDC and the Niger Delta ministry are permanent creations while the amnesty is ”something of an ad-hoc arrangement.”

Nwuche, however, declined comments on the delay in the appointment of a new managing director for NDDC and constitution of the board.

It would be recalled that some militants on Friday in Port Harcourt declared their acceptance of the amnesty, but insisted on the unconditional release of their leader, Henry Okah, who is standing trial over arms running.

At a press briefing to announce their formal acceptance of the amnesty, the militants through their representatives, said they however see the amnesty as an offer of peace which would create forum for the eventual resolution of the issues in the Niger Delta struggle.

The militants leaders represented at the Port Harcourt briefing included, Ateke Tom, Farah Dagogo, Soboma George and Ebikabowei Victor Ben (alias Boy Loaf). They were represented by messers Ikenna Enekwueizu, Innocent Iboroma, pastor Success Jack and Cletus Arerebo respectively.

They had praised the president for having the singular courage to proclaim an unconditional amnesty to all Niger Delta militants, describing his action as ”a positive step forward in the quest towards finding an enduring peace in the Niger Delta.”

”We however see the proclamation of amnesty strictly as an offer of peace because the Niger Delta militants are not criminals, but freedom fighters who have over the years, given their time, money, energy, liberty and lives, towards ensuring that the people of the Niger Delta receive a fair treatment from the oil companies and the Federal Government of Nigeria,” they explained.

Pledging to work towards ensuring that an enduring peace and development is restored to the Niger Delta region through the new rapprochement, the militants then appealed to the president to, in the new spirit, and with a view to facilitating the peace process, release Okah, the MEND leader and also one of the leaders of the Niger Delta struggle who is still undergoing prosecution and currently in custody of the Federal Government.

They said Okah´s release was critical to the sustenance of the peace since he would mobilise his group and inspire them to effectively partake in the process.

The militants had also demanded that their representatives and spokesmen be granted an immediate audience with Yar´Adua, ”so as to brief him first hand, reach a consensus with him on all issues agitating the minds of the militants with respect to the issue of the amnesty proclaimed by him and to ensure the transparent and open implementation of the amnesty protocol.”

In what looked like fresh conditions, the militants, said however, that, ”depending on the outcome of the meeting with the President, we will thereafter announce when we will begin to handover the arms and ammunition in our possession to the Federal Government.”

But as they were briefing the press, one of them, Solomon Ndigbara (aka Osama Bin Laden) surrendered his 10 automatic weapons to the Inspector-General of Police, Mike Okiro. He did at 6 p.m. at the Primary School IV in Yeghe in Gokhana council of Rivers State.

Okah, who is undergoing trial in Jos, will remain in custody until President Yar´Adua briefs the governments of Angola and Equatorial Guinea of the amnesty details, Federal Government said on Friday.

Okah was extradited from Angola following requests to the Angolan President by Yar´Adua. He was arrested there for gun-running and was believed to have travelled through Equatorial Guinea.

Presidential Spokesman, Olusegun Adeniyi, said it would be a matter of courtesy for Yar´Adua to inform the leaders of those countries who responded to his request for Okah´s extradition intimating them of plans to free the militant leader.


Fuente: Sunday Independent

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