Emma Amaize
11 July 2008
MOVEMENT for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), yesterday, announced that it would call off, midnight, tomorrow the unilateral ceasefire it declared, last month, after the attack on the Bonga Oil Field in Bayelsa state.
Meanwhile, the Commander of the Joint Task Force (JTF) on the Niger-Delta, Brigadier -General Nanven Rimtip had told Vanguard earlier in an interview that the task force would take it as a declaration of war if the militant group carries out any further attack on oil installations in the region.
MEND in a statement, signed by Jomo Gbomo also sounded "a stern warning" to the British Prime Minister, Mr Gordon Brown over his recent statement offering to provide military support to the government of Umaru Yar'Adua in further oppressing the impoverished people of the Niger Delta, saying that UK citizens and their interests in the country would bear the brunt."
"To demonstrate our seriousness to the UK support of an injustice, MEND will be calling off its unilateral ceasefire with effect from midnight, Saturday July 12, 2008," he said, adding that President Yar'Adua appeal to the G8 leaders in Japan, misled the international community into believing that the unrest and agitation in the region is due to oil theft, which encourages 'blood oil.'
"The international community and independent researchers are very well aware that the unrest in the region is as a result of over five decades of oil exploration that has developed other parts of Nigeria to the detriment of the environment and people of the Niger Delta.
"The United Kingdom is part of this problem with the politics it played pre-independence that gave leverage to some sections of the country, which has helped in marginalising and exploiting the region today.
"Should Gordon Brown make good his threat to support this criminality for the sake of oil, UK citizens and interests in Nigeria will suffer the consequences," the militant group warned.
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