THE Federal Government and the Aaron Team put together by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) to negotiate crucial issues affecting the region, met yesterday in Abuja, the Federal Capital.
The meeting, at the instance of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, was held in Aso Rock and it reportedly lasted for over two hours.
The President, according to his Special Adviser (Media and Publicity), Mr Olusegun Adeniyi, “following his earlier promise to meet with any individuals or groups in that direction”, met with chairman of teh group, Admiral Mike Akhigbe (rtd), the Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, General Aprezei (rtd), Mr Henry Okah and Mr Farah Dagogo at the Presidential Villa Abuja. Other members of the team at the meeting were: members – Maj.-Gen. Luke Kakadu Aprezi (rtd.); Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka and Mr. Amagbe Denzel Kentebe, who is the liaison officer between MEND and the Aaron Team. Prof. Sabella Ogbobode Abidde did not attend because of flight problems from the United States where he is based.
Leader of MEND, Henry Okah and Overall Commander of MEND’s forces, “General” Farah Dagogo were also in attendance.
President Yar’Adua presided over the meeting. His Special Adviser on Communications, Mr. Segun Adeniyi and another senior government official were also present.
According to sources at the Presidency, yesterday’s meeting was exploratory and was “highly fruitful”. No official statement was expected from both sides to the talks.
But the sources said that the discussants were in high spirits and were, as one of the sources put it, “aware of the grave nature of the national duty they were undertaking and the need to ensure enduring peace in the once volatile Niger Delta region.
“This, I am sure, is perhaps the highest and last group of former militant leaders the President would hold talks with to solve the problems of the region once and for all.
“The President is very particular about bringing the Mr. Henry Okah faction of MEND to the negotiation table as other militant leaders who have accepted the Amnesty project have been meeting with him (President Yar’Adua) before and after the deadline of the 60-day Amnesty programme that ended on October 4.
“You know, the President had met with Okah one-on-one several times and the former militant leader had maintained a stand that he (Okah) would not want to negotiate the fate of the Niger Delta alone but that the government must deal with the Aaron Team. The President is desirous of bringing all parties that can bring lasting peace in the Niger Delta aboard and ensure that his design for the region is implemented without hindrance”, the sources said.
Okah’s MEND had said that the Amnesty programme as is currently designed cannot ensure enduring peace in the neglected region. The group had said that the nation must return to true federalism, embrace resource control, entrench credible electoral system, and undertake massive infrastructural development to compensate for over 50 years of degradation as a result of oil exploration and exploitation in the region.
Email messages to MEND’s dedicated account as at the time of going to press, were not answered.
Leaders of the over 15,000 militants who surrendered weapons to the Amnesty Implementation Committee have been holding meetings with government on how to ensure peace in the region to allow for physical development of the region.
Last week, the repentant militants held a meeting in Effurun, Delta State to appraise the implementation of the Amnesty programme so far and deplored the inadequacies of the project. They threatened to abandon the programme until government clearly spells out the details.
They were unhappy that the two camps set up so far to receive former militants in Delta and Rivers states can only take in 3,000 at a time. They wondered what other militants would do before the batch-by-batch rotation would accommodate them.