From: Jomo Gbomo
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 7:14 AM
Subject: Denial of JTF Uncovered Attack Plot
April, 14, 2008.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) denies categorically the allegation of an attack plot by one of it’s senior field commanders in collaboration with Ateke Tom on the EA Oil Fields supposedly “uncovered” by the Joint Task Force (JTF) of the Nigerian government. There is no such alliance between MEND and Ateke Tom.
This propaganda is a desperate ploy by the JTF in collaboration with a compromised militant group to accelerate payment to an earlier demand for the sum of Seven Hundred Million Naira from the government to protect gas pipelines. It is now common knowledge that the JTF is a business enterprise that will do anything to remain relevant.
MEND uses this opportunity to condemn the unnecessary arrest of a documentary film crew from the United States and it’s Nigerian contact by the JTF. This eye service does not impress anybody, instead it only confirms what we have always stressed that the people of the Niger Delta are being systematically subjected to an apartheid type policy where its people can not move freely without molestation and humiliation by these cowards who specialize in harassing unarmed civilians.
This false alarm of an attack has however shown that the government has admitted failure in providing peace and security in the region. Peace will continue to be a myth in the Niger Delta without justice.
Jomo Gbomo