THE core militant group, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has said that it has no apology to make to South Westerners over the bombing of Atlas Cove in Lagos on July 12, this year.
Spokesman of MEND, Jomo Gbomo, in an online interview with Sunday Tribune, said the Yoruba Elders should rather tender an apology for the development of their area to the detriment of the Niger Delta region.
“They will not be getting any apology from us except they can extract one from Obasanjo for the genocide in Odi, Bayelsa State.
“The elders should also give the people of the Niger Delta an apology for their development at our detriment with environmental degradation as our gain”, he said during the brief interview.
Mr. Gbomo said that there was no miscalculation on the part of the militants as regard the bombing of the Atlas Cove, noting that the attack was deliberate and well thought out.
He said: “It was not a mistake nor a miscalculation on our part but a deliberate, well thought out and executed operation that was targeted at the oil industry. We do not see boundaries in our oil war”.
MEND’s Spokesman castigated President Umaru YarAdua for saying the days of militants were numbered during his visit to Bayelsa State disclosing that may be what he meant was that the “days of true fiscal federalism is at hand”.
It would be recalled that various groups and individuals including Governor Fashola of Lagos, who aired their views on the Atlas Cove attack condemned the action with a strong warning that it should not be repeated.
Also amongst the earlier critics was the founder of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) Fredrick Fasheun who, speaking on behalf of the socio-cultural group, warned the militants against repeated attack saying that OPC will not hesitate to retaliate.
Others who spoke in similar vein included the Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, while Professor Wole Soyinka warned against the ethnicisation of the attack.