Movement for Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND) has explained why Rivers State has remained the focus of its violent attacks.
The state was the theatre of the five-day ‘Oil war’ declared by the group following what it alleged was attacks on its areas by the Joint Task Force (JTF) made up of the Nigerian armed forces, formed five years ago by the federal government to maintain peace in the violent but oil, rich region.
But curiously, while Rivers State, hitherto a quiet state boiled, other Niger Delta states remained calm, especially, the violent prone states: Bayelsa and Delta.
In a reply to MEND, however, Rivers State government insisted that it would not do business with those it called criminals. The criminals, it said are those involved in kidnapping, even of babies and old persons. Their activities, it went on, have done tremendous damage to the regions’ economy as well..
However, Niger Delta youths under the umbrella of Ijaw Youths Leadership Forum (IYLF) have demanded the release of Mr. Henry Okah, leader of Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).
At a meeting held recently at Oporoza in Delta State, the youths reiterated that the much-desired peace in the Niger Delta will remain a fleeting illusion if Okah was not released to be part of the peace process.
Meanwhile, Leader of Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF), AlhajiMujahid Asari Dokubo, has said that because criminals have taken over the struggle in the region, his group has pulled back so as not to be seen to be part of the criminality going on there.
“We want to stand aside. Let people not say we saw the Niger Delta People’s Volunteers or the Niger Delta People’s Salvation Front. That we saw them kidnapping. That we saw them doing this. We have come out from among them, and we are separate from them. The criminals are carrying out the activities and we don’t want to be part of it,” Dokubo said
In an online interview with Saturday Vanguard, the MEND said, “the other Niger Delta governors are showing us (MEND) respect (high opinion) and we will give them respect in return.”
Unlike Amaechi, the other governors, the group said, are more perceptive and tactful in their approach to the region’s “struggle than Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, who branded freedom fighters (militants) as criminals, yet his government is the one breeding criminals, as evidenced with the recent arrest of a number of its top functionaries by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for ‘huge financial crimes’.”
A top MEND leader had told Saturday Vanguard that, “In Rivers State, we see the state government as a factor in the crisis because of Governor Amaechi’s way of doing things.
The governor himself is a participant in the crisis and so, it will be difficult for him to get the militants there to agree to give peace a chance the way Uduaghan has done in Delta”, he said.
Saturday Vanguard learnt that one thing that has worked very well for Uduaghan also in his security and peace agenda was how he managed the delicate power play between the Ijaw and Itsekiri in the chairmanship of the three Warri local government areas, which is Warri South-West, Warri South and Warri North local government areas.
The second-in-command in the MEND hierarchy and indeed, the commander of the current MEND operations in Niger-Delta is said to hail from Bayelsa State.
Though relationship between him and his state governor, Sam Timipre-Sylva, is said not to be rosy, the governor is said to have found a way of reaching and asking the MEND leader to allow peace to reign in the state.
Dependable sources said Governor Timipre-Sylva was presently rehabilitating one of the powerful militant leaders in the state who decided to lay down his arms and he has a working alliance with militants in the state to maintain peace.
Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor (Edo), Chief Godswill Akpabio (Akwa-Ibom) and Dr. Liyel Imoke (Cross River) are not having much challenge from militants in their states. In Edo State, the protest from Ijaw youths who are agitating for the creation of more local government areas for them in the state and Osunbor is trying to manage the situation.
In Akwa-Ibom State, the observable problem has been more of disagreements between some oil communities and an oil company over certain rights and environmental pollution.
But while acknowledging the suave approach of some of the governors, the militant group stated, “We are not in any way subject to them (Governors) and when the need arises we will take our orders from elsewhere.”
Asari told Saturday Vanguard at a gathering of political activists last Tuesday in Lagos that the allegation that he and MASSOB leader, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, are into arms deal with one Mrs. Duru is a ruse by the government to re-arrest them and sent back to prison.
Asari said government is afraid of a crisis that would come if it does not allow Nigerians to have a sovereign national conference (SNC) to chart a new constitution for the country, instead of the review being tinkered by the National Assembly, and so wants to arrest those it thinks are capable of giving government some trouble.
“I don’t know Mrs. Duru. It’s one of the kites they are… as I am talking to you, the Yar’Adua government has issued a warrant for my arrest, my re-arrest.
They’ve found out that if there is going to be a crisis, as there is bound to be, that the people who can oppose them are parts of MASSOB and Niger Delta People’s Salvation Front, with our affiliate organisations…. So we are the visible face that will a give counter force. So we must be confined.
The woman, we don’t know her. Uwazuruike has said he doesn’t know the woman. I don’t know the woman. I have never heard her name. They said that I stay in her house when I come. That she procures arms for us. But I don’t know the woman. And there was another woman at Ikeja arrested in Port Harcourt with the same story that she is supplying arms. So, that is it,” he said.
The allegation “is a ruse to arrest us and take us back to prison, until they execute and finish their project against the people,” he added.
Asari denied dealing in arms, and went on to say the crisis that will come to Nigeria will not be only by the Niger Delta people, but by all Nigerians, adding that it would come if government does not let Nigerians sit down and discuss how to be a nation.
“If the people are not allowed to sit down…. He who does not allow peaceful change will be forced to allow violent change.”
The former armed leader who says he is not a militant, said he had informed his lawyers about the warrant of arrest issued on him, and that SNC is possible in the country.
Asari condemned the government on rule of law and the judiciary as well. For him, Umaru Yar’Adua’s rule of law is a deception, he cited the secret trial of Okah as an example of government’s non-application of rule of law.
Release Okah, or we’ll resume hostilities, say Ijaw youths
But at Oporoza, Ijaw youths gathered recently and demanded the release of Okah to be part of the peace process, or they will return to the trenches.
Saturday Vanguard gathered that “MEND ‘downgraded’ the oil war following the intervention of Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, IYLF leader, Chief Ekpemupolo and the chairman of the Federal Government Committee on Peace and Conflict Resolution in the Niger-Delta, Senator David Brigidi to peacefully negotiate the release of Okah or the war continues.”
The militants said they would resume hostilities if after a period of time the assumed leader of the MEND, Henry Okah , who is standing a secret trial for treasonable felony and other offences was not released by the Federal Government.
Activists in the Niger-Delta under the leadership of Chief Government Ekpemupolo assisted Federal Government to bring peace to the region after the former governor of Bayelsa State; Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari were released by the Federal Government.
The detention of the duo was among the key issues that led to the all-out war by the MEND against the former President Olusegun Obasanjo regime, which President Umaru Yar’Adua succeeded.
Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, initiated the peace efforts on behalf of the government and the militants are expecting that by the end of this year, 2008, the Federal Government should come out with a categorical statement on freedom or otherwise for Okah.