AS President Umaru Yar’Adua is billed to disclose on Thursday, this week, modalities already worked out for the granting of amnesty to militants in the Niger Delta, there are strong indications that the olive branch of the Federal Government is yet to be planted on a solid ground.
Militants in the region say the government’s intention lacks a “confidence-building mechanism, especially in the face of recent developments in the polity.”
The presidential initiative to grant amnesty to repentant militants has remained a contentious point since the ongoing military onslaught against militants in the restive region began.
Last week, an emergency meeting of the presidential committee for the granting of amnesty met in Aso Rock with President Yar’Adua presiding. The meeting was said to have put finishing touches to the report with a view to submitting same to the National Council of State for advice and possible ratification on Tuesday (tomorrow).
According to presidential spokesman, Olusegun Adeniyi, President Yar’Adua would disclose the terms, which, he said, had some legal aspects. But ahead of the NCS’s meeting on Tuesday, the Nigerian Tribune authoritatively gathered that the Federal Government’s covert efforts to finally enlist the support of prominent indigenes of the region, particularly Ijaw leaders, to prevail on the militants to accept government’s amnesty offer were not yielding positive results.
This is even as militants in the region have vowed not to accept the rapprochement until what they describe as “useful mechanisms” are put in place.
On Sunday evening, Nigerian Tribune had a telephone interview with a sector commander of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) (name withheld) and he said the current debate about amnesty was not in any way different from earlier promises from government.
Excerpts from the interview:
Tribune: How is MEND preparing for the president’s address to the nation, as far as the issue of amnesty is concerned?
Militant: As far as we are concerned, our positions have been made known to the world, even long before the JTF embarked on this genocide; we have stated in clear terms that there is no way we can talk about amnesty when our leader, who is the arrowhead of the struggle is still being incarcerated for nothing. The last unprovoked attack on one of the key figures in the Niger Delta struggle, I am talking about Tompolo by the overzealous JTF men who merely were scavenging for something to perpetuate their continued stay in the region, was the worst thing ever to come from a government that had preached amnesty.
Tribune: But why not wait for the president to disclose the terms and raise observations where necessary, rather than foreclosing any discussion on the issue?
Militant: You are talking as if you are not in this country; where were you when a few months after Henry Okah was visited in South Africa by our own brother, the vice-president? He was set up and arrested for an offence he knew nothing about. The truth of the matter is that the VP was only acting innocently, he never knew about this other agenda by the North. It is in the same direction we are looking at the amnesty issue. Who do we trust amongst our people in government? How far can we trust them? How are we sure the government will not use and dump those who, having earned our respect, talk to us to accept this so-called amnesty without raising issues? The truth is that all our people are even weary of the entire scenario. They don’t want to be the ones who will exploit their goodwill with us and end up being rubbished; we have seen it before. Remember that only about a few weeks ago, the government said it had in its possession a list of our sponsors from the region. The government should know that we don’t need sponsors in any form, if at all, the government is our sponsor. How would you expect these men of honour to stake their lives and arrange for us to accept amnesty, when they do not know what is at stake?
Please remember that right now, there is a plane which the government says it has impounded; until the various porous security agencies conclude their investigations, we are hesitant too, because we don’t want the government to look in our direction which they are already doing. Or is it not your paper which reported that Tompolo is in Ukraine? Now they claim they have impounded a plane laden with arms from that country; my brother, this is a cat and mouse game, let us see how it goes.
Tribune: So what are you saying?
Militant: What I want you to understand is that, in view of recent developments in the polity, there is no confidence building mechanism to encourage us into what they call now amnesty; there have been promises before and government had reneged on those promises, amnesty is just another word for carrot guided by the gun,” he said.
Meanwhile, three oil facilities operated by oil multinational, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), were damaged by militants ravaging the Niger Delta early Sunday.
In an online alert sent by the spokesman for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), three facilities of Shell located within Rivers State were attacked and destroyed in the early hours of Sunday as part of the group’s “Hurricane Piper Alpha”.
Meanwhile, the oil company, through one of its spokesmen, has confirmed attacks on two of its facilities in the Eastern Operation on Sunday.
MEND, in the statement sent by Jomo Gbomo, said it attacked a major pipeline belonging to SPDC located at Adamakiri, moved on to another facility at Kula and ended up at the company’s offshore field at Ofirma.
“At about 0230 Hrs, the hurricane pounded the Shell major pipeline located at Adamakiri before moving on to another major Shell pipeline in Kula at 0300 Hrs.
Both pipelines are located in Rivers State of Nigeria.
“Hurricane Piper Alpha lashed out at the Shell Off-shore Ofirma oil fields today, Sunday, June 21, 2009 at about 0400 Hrs, blowing up jacket A in the process. The structure is currently engulfed in fire,” MEND claimed.
SPDC, through a text message sent on by one of its spokesmen confirmed only two attacks on the company’s facilities, which were not specified. He also said investigations were still on to ascertain the level of damage on facility, environment and operations.