Worried by the consistent threats by Gov. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, the Governor of Rivers state to get him arrested and prosecute him for his past atrocities, the leader of the Niger Delta Vigilante Movement (NDVM) Ateke Tom, has replied the Governor by saying that, he will soon launch persistent bombardment in Port Harcourt city from second week of April 2008.
He stated that this is going to be very devastating in nature and more dangerous than the previous ones and their main target is the “Brick House” referring to the Rivers state government house with the intention to capture Gov. Rotimi Amaechi alive.
Ateke Tom, who spoke with our correspondent in Port Harcourt on telephone threatened to go on with his initial threat (which he considered dropping) of deploying, over 2000 suicide bombers around Diobu area of Port Harcourt and its environs very soon, and passionately pleaded with children and aged mothers to please stay in-doors during the period to avoid being hit by stray bullets.
He also stated that this had become necessary as his initial decision to toe the path of peace and stop violence was being rubbished by the Amaechi-led government, as if he was nobody in the state, saying, “I, Ateke Tom made Dr. Peter Odili and Mr. Rotimi Amaechi in 1999 when they were nobody”.
Speaking further, the NDVM leader referred to Governor Amaechi’s government as an illegality, a body from the rotten womb of the Supreme Court and a judicial imposition on the people of Rivers state, adding that there was a consensus opinion among all the freedom fighters in the Niger Delta region on the removal of Rotimi Amaechi from office in January this year; but he kicked against that move, hoping that Amaechi would repent from rubbishing him, but he was highly disappointed.
He then, went on to accuse the Amaechi-led government of double standards by sponsoring and providing government security to Soboma George and even visited him at his hide-out in Abonnema last month.
According to him, the inclusion of Soboma’s name in the wanted list of JTF was politics and a mere smokescreen to deceive the innocent public.
He said, if the Governor wants Soboma George to be arrested today, he could do so, because he knows how to get him, saying, after all the government of Amaechi used Soboma George to effect the release of chief Lulu Briggs’ wife, when she was abducted.
When asked to comment about Okah’s trial,the dreaded militant said his organization would not hesitate to provide moral and logistical support to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), whose leader is being held on trumped-up charges by the federal government of Nigeria.
He then pleaded with elders and leaders of the region to call Governor Amaechi to order and dissuade him from making provocative statements in order not to destroy the state.
Source: Niger Delta Standard