The leader of an acclaimed militant group in Rivers State, the Niger Delta Vigilante Movement, Ateke Tom, said his group would cease armed struggle for 90 days to observe Federal Gover-nment’s seriousness towards enhancing the development of the Niger Delta.
Ateke, who had been on the wanted list of security agencies for sometime now and whose group had been prohibited alongside many other groups by the Rivers State House of Assembly in 2005, also warned the new state government to desist from setting armed groups against each other.
Ateke, who stated these in a press statement and circulated in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, urged the Federal Government to give attention to �provision of schools, good health-care facilities, basic social amenities, rehabilitation and creation of jobs for youths of the region.�
He further demanded, among other things, that the new federal administration release, �with immediate effect,� the leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteers Force (ND-PVF), Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, and the deposed governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alamieyesei-gha, from detention.
�We wish to enjoin the new administration to focus on issues that will impact positively on the lives of the Nigerian citizens, especially the Niger Delta people,� he said in the statement.