Still smarting from the frustration at the recently concluded National Political Reform Conference, for not achieving 25% derivation, South-South appears set to actualise its threat to control its resources at all costs.
To this end, an insurgent group that styles itself, South-South Liberation Movement, has started training youths for guerilla warfare preparatory to declaration of Niger Delta Republic.
SECURITY alert in next to no time after the London bombings last month, which coincided with the walk-out by delegates from the South-South geo-political zone from the just ended National Political Reforms Conference (NPRC) at Abuja, the Federal Government ordered security agents to keep a weather eye on all militant and belligerent groups in the country, chiefly in the uneasy Niger-Delta region. Among the groups that were placed under strict surveillance were the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, led by Ralph Uwazurike; Alhaji Moujahid Asari-Dokubo's Niger Delta Volunteer Force (NDVF); Arewa Peoples Congress and the Odua Peoples Congress.
To some persons, the shadowing was just the usual government's fire-brigade reaction to issues of such nature but a security source denied it was a panic-driven measure, saying: "There were sufficient reasons to believe that some private army in the Niger Delta wanted to stir up trouble in the country over the vexed issue of resource control and higher derivation formula.
Besides the band of soldiers, some high-flying political figures in the South-South zone were placed on the watch list with extra-vigilance measures put in place at the oil installations, borders and airports.
About the same period, our Niger-Delta Bureau was tipped off that millions of persons had allegedly been trained and more still undergoing military training in the mangrove forests and swamps of the region, awaiting the last order to go to war for the actualization of the "Republic of Niger Delta".
From illusion to reality: The whole thing appeared incredible until few days ago when Sunday Vanguard through a go-between, met with leaders of the South-South Liberation Movement, a Niger-Delta group which is behind the reinvigorated move to proclaim a Republic of Niger Delta. The visit to some operational bases of the group in Delta and Bayelsa states by Sunday Vanguard was on certain conditions. One was that the locations should not be disclosed by the newspaper to anybody. Two, the photographs that were taken must not be given to security agents for any purpose and, three, it is not all that the eye saw that must be reported.
The group, allegedly led by a retired Warrant Officer of the Nigerian Army who was trained in South- Korea on counter-terrorism had put to paper its intention to declare a "Republic of Niger Delta" to the United Nations. Information at the disposal of Sunday Vanguard indicated that the national coordinator of the Movement, John Adie, who is not a strange face to security agents in the country, has been training in jungle warfare and was once an instructor in the Amphibious Training Wing of the Nigerian Army, Calabar in Cross River State.
Copies of their May 20 letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations, signed by Adie and 15 others had also been forwarded to the Secretary to the Federal Government, all governors and speakers of the six South-South states, the Oba of Benin, Olu of Warri and other royal fathers in the region, all the foreign embassies within and outside the country, South-South leaders and activists.
The quartet of the national coordinator, Adie; deputy national coordinator, Prince Agonaemi Evah, Delta State coordinator, Bailbond Perekelegha and national youth president, Goddy Ewerode who met with Sunday Vanguard at an agreed location in Delta State, last week, said they were not terrorists and were not afraid of death either.
It was gathered that some contingents trained by the movement had been stationed in neighbouring West African countries and if the Federal Government does not properly handle its proposed plan to increase the pump price of petrol to N80 per litre, the activists might just use it as a catalyst to start their insurgency.
Military training camps: Sunday Vanguard discovered that the movement has been working underground in the creeks of Niger Delta for about five years now and has about 150 preparation camps where jobless graduates and undergraduates were allegedly being taught regimentation, weapons handling and jungle warfare. Ex military men from the Niger Delta, especially those that were suddenly retired from the Army, Air force and Navy, were also allegedly learnt to have signed up with the group and are ready to fight for the actualization of resource control. In fact, a collection of retired military pensioners in the South-South who fought on the Nigerian side during the civil war openly declared in Warri, last month that they would join in the emancipation struggle.
A source said security agencies were not ignorant of the fact
that the Niger Delta already has an army ready for war and suicide mission. According to information pieced together, it was an open secret that the militants parade the creeks in the night with sophisticated arms. The training camps are dotted across the six states of the region but the largest concentration is in Bayelsa State. Mr. Adie told Sunday Vanguard that: "this is not a battle our elders can fight for us, so the youths have decided to do the battle by themselves because we know that freedom is not gotten on a platter of gold".
Some of the trainees spoken to on the condition of anonymity said they were in camp to train and secure freedom for their people. "I left school to fight to liberate my people because it is stated in the Bible that the kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent taketh it by force. We are ready to fight for what is rightly given to us by God and to fight the government to standstill. There is no going back", one of them said.
In the co-ordinator's words: "The time of communiqués and dialogue is over, we want to speak the language that the Federal Government understands, hence we decided to marshal ourselves and get what we want by force. After all, sharia people woke up from sleep one day, dreamt up sharia, introduced it and nothing happened. It is really a shame that our so-called governors, because of their loyalty to the PDP, do not want to take the bull by the horns. What stops them from declaring a Republic of South-South or getting resource control by force like sharia people did."
Pre-declaration meeting: The national coordinator of Warri-based Human Rights Defenders Organization of Nigeria (HURDON), Mr. Casley Omon-Irabor, who is eyeing the governorship seat in his home state, Edo in 2007 confirmed to Sunday Vanguard, that "it is not a hidden fact that the Niger Delta has an army ready for war and judges, doctors, name them are ready to fight the war".
Niger Delta leaders
An insider said that a select group of Niger Delta leaders met shortly after the abrupt end of the confab where a principal officer of the confab from the South-South confessed that he had realized why elder statesman, Chief Anthony Enahoro, refused the overtures to him to be part of the conference and preside over it. The meeting, which reviewed the outcome of the conference, resolved that it was not likely that South-South could get justice if it remained as part of Nigeria.
A meeting of the ethnic nationalities in the region, presided over by an Ijaw royal father was held thereafter where it was agreed that the elders should stay at the background while the youths go to the battle front.
Isaac Boro and Ken Saro-Wiwa spirit: Investigations showed that members of the movement are fired up by the same sprit that led Ijaw activist, the late Isaac Adaka Boro and late Ken Saro-Wiwa, an Ogoni-born environmental activist who was hung by the military regime of General Sani Abacha. Some portraits of Isaac Boro were hung at strategic places in the camp.
A restless young Ijaw undergraduate of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Boro pulled together a rag-tag military of 159 youths under the flag of first Niger Delta Volunteer Service and on February 23, 1966, started operations with his men in the creeks of the region against the rest of the country. His mission to unshackle "Ijaw" land by force, however, buckled after 12 days following the superior pyrotechnics of federal troops.
That was the end of the first dream of a Niger Delta Republic, Boro and two of his lieutenants: Samuel Owonaro and Nottingham Dick, were tried for treason in late March 1966. They were found guilty and sentenced to death June 21, 1966 but were later pardoned by the then head of state, General Yakubu Gowon in August 1967.
The trio joined the federal troops to liberate parts of Rivers State forcibly occupied by Biafran troops and on April 20, 1968, Boro died in active service, "an undying hero and martyr in the hearts and minds of angry Ijaw youths decades after", according to professor emeritus and former vice chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Prof Tekena Tamuno.
Nothing matters anymore: Delta State coordinator of the movement and national assistant secretary of the Ijaw National Congress, Prekelegha, told Sunday Vanguard that he was not dissuaded in any way that both Boro and Saro-Wiwa were killed in the struggle, adding that "it does not matter if I die in the struggle, what matters is that the people of the Niger Delta realize their dream of a Republic of Niger Delta.
He said that Niger Delta was not part of the Nigerian treaty and was not discovered by Lord Lugard. "We have been existing before Lord Lugard came, he did not discover us, we discovered him when he came. If America is looking for terrorists, they should come to Nigeria and see the leaders who are terrorizing the people of the South-South as well as the multi-national oil companies", he added.
Adie maintained:"We want to start from where Isaac Boro stopped in a sophisticated way. We have trained terrorists who will do the job and some serving soldiers are ready to fight on our side". Reminded of the difficulty Boro encountered with his rag-tag army, he said "we have trained enough boys who are ready to take over our resources by force and we want to take it away in President Olusegun Obasanjo's time because he is the greatest enemy of the Niger Delta".
Deputy national coordinator, Evah and youth president of the movement, Ewerode, also confirmed to Sunday Vanguard during the visit that fighters were being trained in the creeks, saying that "the phase we are now is the first phase, which is consultation, sensitization and mobilization." According to them: "Leaders like Chief Edwin Clark and others have done their best but the youths are no longer ready for fruitless negotiations, for in South-Africa, Desmond Tutu and his group battled apartheid before they got freedom, we also have to battle the enemies of resource control before we can get our own freedom."
More than 6,000 persons already trained: Though, a source hinted that no fewer than 10 million fighters were ready to fight any time a war was declared for the Republic of Niger Delta, Adie informed that 6,000 persons from the Niger Delta had already received military training while more were being trained in the base camps. According to him: "the training takes up to a year or more". It was also learnt that the former military men that enlisted with the movement were only being re-trained as they were already familiar with weapons handling.
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Visitors barred from training camp: He told this reporter that no visitor is allowed to the training camps and that the trainees get their food supply from outside under the supervision of the logistics commander. It was gathered that the trainees are not allowed to go home for either Christmas, Easter or New Year celebrations. A trainee, Douglas, said: "I was told before I was enlisted that I cannot go home or leave the camp until I graduate". It was learnt that each of the trainees allegedly swore to an oath of secrecy before training commenced. Admission into the training school is voluntary.
Source of arms and ammunition: This was a no-go-area during the interview but dark-complexioned Perekelegha who walks with a swagger and claimed to be the founder of Meinbutu, an Ijaw word for justice, said: "We get our weapons from the space world through the assistance of Isaac Adaka-Boro and Ken Saro-Wiwa who provide funds for us".
No tie with Asari-Dokubo, MASSOB: Sunday Vanguard sought to know from Adie the link between Asari-Dokubo led NDPVF and Uwazurike's MASSOB on one side and the movement. He said there was none as "Asari-Dokubo and Uwazurike are on their own and we are on our own". Dokubo is the leader of a latter-day militant group in the region whose unique ideology, patterned after that of Isaac Boro, could not be wished aside in the struggle for freedom by the Niger Deltans.
Erroneously mistaken as an illegal bunkerer and a criminal, he surged into national prominence locally, nationally and internationally, in the last few months, when he threatened with his group that the region would take over its resources.
His activities caused a swirl worldwide in the international oil market and President Obasanjo was forced to meet with him. His group was said to be a creation of some politicians in Rivers State but Dokubo told Sunday Vanguard that "I am a freedom fighter who wants freedom for my people, the people of Niger Delta and I have not hidden my plan that I want the Niger Delta people to secede from Nigeria".
What does SSLM want?
What the South-South Liberation Movement is saying is not different from the case made for the geo-political zone by its delegates to the confab. The only divergence is that it wants to take by force what the associates believe belong to the region. The movement's letter to the United Nations is a dossier on alleged constitutional breaches by the Federal Government; neglect of the region; causes of youth restiveness in the zone; derivation and resource control struggle; looming cancer epidemic due to oil exploration and prayers for deliverance from the many evils distressing the region."
