Emma Amaize
21 June 2008
MOVEMENT for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), yesterday, described as empty the order by President Umar Yar Adua to the military to seize militants who attacked the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDCs) Bonga Field, last Thursday, saying it would declare an oil war if the military attacks any militant position.
Niger-Delta militants also rejected the offer of amnesty to them by the Federal Government with the leader of the MEND in Bayelsa State, Commander Boyloaf, and a spokesman of the Underdog, a militant group in Delta State, insisting amnesty was not the solution to the Niger-Delta crisis. Commander of the Joint Task Force (JTF) on the Niger-Delta, Brigadier-General Nanven Rimtip, however, said the task force would carry out the Federal Government directive if the militants were not willing to take the amnesty offered by the Federal Government.
Rimtip, also in a manner suggestive of the JTF's disposition to the presidential directive, yesterday, led his men on an operation in the creeks following a threat by aggrieved oil bunkerers, who blew up Chevron-Texaco oil pipeline in Delta State, last Thursday night, because the task force was frustrating their activities, to blast another oil pipeline between Dibi and Abiteye.
The JTF commander, who confirmed the operation to Sunday Vanguard, said over 120,000 barrels of crude were being lost daily by the country since the Thursday's attack on the pipeline and wondered why Ijaw elders who were fond of castigating the task force had not spoken on the incident.
MEND in a statement, signed by Jomo Gbomo, yesterday, on the presidential directive to the military to fish out Niger Delta militants, said the group considers "the empty threat made by an illegal commander-in-chief of inept armed forces of Nigeria as a joke." It advised Yar Adua not to be deceived by those it described as criminals within the military who were allegedly pushing him into a cul-de-sac. The statement went on, "Yar'Adua should not be deceived by the criminals within the armed forces who are pushing him to enter into a fight for their own selfish interest as we don't see how the military can emerge victorious in guerrilla warfare and tactics.
"For underrating our capabilities, the military has been ridiculed world wide after the attack on Bonga. If they want to further expose their weaknesses, then we challenge them to launch an attack on any of our positions. An attack on any militant position is tantamount to a declaration of oil war. The type of war they are expecting is far from what we plan to engage in. In order to avoid being caught in a cross fire, we are asking all expatriate oil workers to vacate oil facilities and living quarters in the Niger Delta while we settle our score with an insincere Federal Government".
The group called "on all patriotic youths in the region to sabotage oil facilities in your communities while those willing to be trained to fight are welcome in our training camps", saying that any community close to MEND camps that harbors security operatives or spies does so at their risk and such traitors will be punished". It added, "For decades we have been deceived and exploited by the criminal Nigeria state. To those youths who are willing to fight for freedom, MEND welcomes you".
On last Thursday night's bombing of the Chevron-Texaco oil pipeline in Delta State, it said, "Heeding the MEND call to sabotage oil installations in oil producing communities, a group of angry youths have contacted us giving details of their involvement in the sabotage of the Chevron Abiteye-Olero crude pipeline. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta wishes to commend these patriotic youths who we are now empowering with more powerful explosives and new techniques to destroy additional pipelines inside Delta State. The government still has time to save face by releasing Henry Okah to partake in a genuine peace process before Nigeria's oil export reaches zero."
Speaking on the militants renewed attacks, yesterday, the JTF commander said he was surprised that the Ijaw elders had not said anything about the colossal damage militants were causing the country "and when the JTF moves in now to get them, they will say that we are attacking Ijaw communities. I don't know how objective these people are in the way they speak on issues." He said he visited the location of last Thursday's bombing to assess the damage on the oil facility, check and strengthen the security on ground following intelligence report that the bunkerers had concluded plans to bomb the oil pipeline between Dibi and Abiteye. "I moved from Escravos to the point of last Thursday night incident and also the next target they want to come to.
We already have information on the leader of the bunkerers that spearheaded the attack and we are looking for him", he told Sunday Vanguard.
Rimtip said the bunkerers did not blow up the pipeline because they wanted to scoop fuel, but, because they were not happy that the task force was closing in on their operations in the creek and also, they wanted to be given the contract to repair the pipelines. There was tension in some creek communities in the state when the people saw a parade of soldiers patrolling the mangrove.
Meanwhile, Niger-Delta militants have rebuffed the offer of amnesty by the Federal Government on the condition that they would lay down their arms, saying the government should keep its official pardon until it is willing to start infrastructural development of the Niger-Delta and effect the release of the leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND), Henry Okah, before calling for a peace summit in the region. They also said they were not worried by the news that Angola had overtaken Nigeria in oil production as a result of the Niger-Delta crisis "because the oil in our land is not being used for our well-being but for the happiness of the Nigerian government, the oil companies and the powerful cabal running the country."
Similarly, a leader of the Underdogs, a militant group operating in the Egbema axis of Delta State declared, "The Federal Government said they have mercy on all militants, that is not the solution. They should develop our areas, employ our youths and give political appointments to our people of Egbema for we have no person, representing us in Egbema, whether in the Delta State House of Assembly, House of Representative or Senate and we have no commissioner, no special adviser. "Besides, the issue of the chairmanship of Warri North Local Government Area is still pending. Now that an Itsekiri is there against the wish of the people, it must be agreed now that the next chairman must be an Ijaw.
The Federal Government should look into these issues before they talk about dropping arms."
Speaking for the private sector in the Niger-Delta on the amnesty offer, the president of Mustard Seed Group, Warri, Pastor Glory Abrefera, who has been pleading with militants to drop their arms in the past two years, maintained that it was improper for the government to say it was offering amnesty to militants in the oil region without explicit programme on how they would be rehabilitated, adding, "These are people that started carrying guns because they were pushed to the wall and you are telling them to drop their guns without providing them any rehabilitation plan."
Vice President Goodluck Jonathan had, while playing host to a delegation of the Rivers State Truth and Reconciliation Commission who visited him at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, last Wednesday, said, "For those who, as part of the seeming agitation, may have fallen foul of the law but are now willing to make amends, the Federal Government will grant them amnesty." The leader of MEND in Bayelsa State, Commander Boyloaf, who allegedly led the fighters that attacked the $3.6 billion Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Bonga Oil Field in the early hours of last Thursday, forcing a shut-in of 225,000 barrels per day, told Sunday Vanguard, in an interview, "As a matter of fact, I have my own amnesty, government and the oil companies should keep their amnesty."
Boyloaf, who allegedly specializes in blowing up oil facilities, continued, "They (government) are supposed to be begging us to grant them amnesty and not them saying that they want to grant us amnesty. We are to grant them amnesty, they should be begging us to grant them amnesty and not the other way round. They should keep their amnesty; we will continue to cripple the economy until they are ready to develop the Niger-Delta. Is amnesty a certificate for a job? We are fighting for our rights.
I think they are planning to hold a summit on the Niger-Delta. Let them continue and let us see how that is going to solve the problem of the Niger-Delta when Henry Okah, who is very crucial to the peace process in the region, is being held. Who is going to stop our fighters from crippling the economy if Okah is not released? Nobody. They know what is right and they should do it instead of deviating from reality.
"The truth is that we (freedom fighters) are free, we are moving about freely in the creeks, which is our homeland. We did not tell anybody that we are not free, they should release Henry Okah and give Niger-Delta what belongs to it if they want peace." He said that any attempt by the government to underestimate militants, capability by trying anything funny with the JTF would result in the total destruction of the economy. On the emergence of Angola as a major player in the oil industry because of the crisis in the Niger Delta, he said, "We are not worried by the Angola thing. The truth of the matter is that the owners of the oil in Nigeria are not enjoying the wealth from their mineral resource. Even if Nigeria's production is high, it is other people that are enjoying it, not the people of the Niger-Delta. So, it their cup of tea.
"If they really want genuine peace, as I told you, they know what to do; for now, they want to show their power. Instead of developing Niger-Delta, they voted over N300 billion to buy arms to destroy our will. But it will not work; rather, we will crumble the economy. You cannot push somebody to the wall and tell him not to fight back. It is better we crumble everything because we are not getting anything from it. Very soon, our oil will finish and there will be nothing, absolutely nothing, for the Niger-Delta people to show for it."
On his part, Mustard Seed boss said, "The fact is that I don't see the amnesty as a gesture from the Federal Government because these men were pushed into taking those actions because of a particular situation that was on ground. And before you talk about amnesty, first of all, these people were not under any obligation to drop arms or take arms, they were forced into it, so the Federal Government should, first of all, address the needs of the Niger-Delta area, like providing jobs for these people, building industries in the area or encouraging investors to come from wherever they are to build industries in the region so that there will be activities in the area.
Once that happens, they will drop the arms. Who wants to go and suffer in the creeks? I am not sure it is their wish to be in the creeks. When I watched the news of the offer of amnesty on television, I was laughing at the Federal Government because I believe that they don't know what they are doing, it is not called for."
According to Abrefera: "In Delta State, I called a few of the youths in the area and we were all talking together on how to create an alternative means for them to drop their arms, stop hostilities and become rehabilitated. Until we rehabilitate the people, it is difficult for us to say that they should stop hostilities. So if the private sector could be doing that in their own way at their own cost, the Federal Government should do their own hundred times more.
You say the man should stop what he is doing for a living because what he is doing is not helping the society at large, but, before you can stop him, the man should have an alternative means of income like giving him a job. If he now says that he does not want to work, you can then ask him to drop his arms or we force you to drop the arms. You know, it does not pay all of us here that they have taken to arms, we cannot walk freely. I am a pastor but the truth is that the thing has gone beyond the point of amnesty. You have to provide a means for them to live so that when you say drop the arms, they will know you are honest. You say drop the arms but you have not provided any means for them to drop the arms, how can they drop the arms?"
An Ijaw militant leader in Rivers State who preferred anonymity said, "We reject the proposed amnesty by the Federal Government. They want to deceive us, we are no longer ready for their deceit. They should release Henry Okah who they begged in South-Africa; it was this same vice president who is promising amnesty that went there to beg him. Before they can call anybody for further peace talks on the Niger-Delta, they should release him. The government should also put on hold its planned summit on the Niger-Delta until some conditions are met, otherwise, it is very clear that they want to plunge the country into more trouble."
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