FORMER Federal Commissioner of Information and National leader of the Ijaw Ethnic Nationality, Chief Edwin Clark, alleged, weekend, that the Joint Military Task Force (JMTF) in the Niger Delta deliberately opened fire on the peace emissaries because they thought Ijaw leaders were in the speed boat. He claimed that there was an unspoken order to get rid of them.
He spoke just as the Federal Government has ruled out the possibility of inviting United States Marines to provide security in the Niger Delta.
Chief Clark who called on the Federal Government to apologise and pay damages to the families of the 15 negotiators who met their untimely death and others wounded in an attack by soldiers while returning from Letugbene with the abducted Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) staff, the late Comrade Nelson Ujeya, after he was released to the team, said it was the soldiers that knowingly shot at the Ijaw envoys.
Besides the dead, nine of whom were buried, weekend in Delta and Bayelsa states, Vanguard learnt that four of the negotiators who were wounded by bullets from the soldiers have been hospitalised; one of them was shot on the thigh and another who was rushed to Lagos is reportedly in coma.
According to Clark, �there was no shoot-out between our boys and the military. They were harmless and they showed that they were defenceless. And if anybody tells you there was a shoot-out, it is not true, and there was no military man who died. So, only the Ijaw people who went to bring this Urhobo man, Ujeya, that were attacked by the military. Perhaps, they thought that some leaders were there, they refer to them as militant leaders but unfortunately for them, they were not there.
�I have seen the boys who were shot. They came to my house to see me. Some were shot on the shoulders; some were shot at the back unprovoked. So, it is not true as you people reported that there was a shoot-out between Ijaw youths and the military, they were not militants. Does it mean that every Ijaw youth is a militant? It was our decision that this Urhobo man be freed, having regards to our relationship with the Urhobo and we do not want any other crisis within ourselves. That is why we took that decision but the Bayelsa State government sent a team after our meeting. The Iduwini people sent a team and the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), I think they have an arrangement with Chief Second and they also went. So they were three or four boats that went there.
�I have the photograph of the young man, Ujeya, the Shell CLO making a speech, thanking the people for releasing him and I have the photograph where he and people like Chief Second took pictures and there is a report that he spoke to his wife before he was killed. So, it is not a question of crossfire between militant Ijaw youths and soldiers. There was nothing like that. It was an unprovoked attack. It was something they (the army) planned to do.
�And we have made our point very clear, that all those who died were massacred by the army and they have their reasons for doing that. That is the position. Even Ujeya, the CLO, was in the boat. The Passport 19 and with another chief from Letugbene and two of them were killed and thrown into the water and the boat was burnt. Let us face facts. So you people should stop saying that there was a shoot-out. The boys went on a peace mission and what we are saying is that when they kidnap, you condemn them, you shoot at them, then again, when they do some humanitarian job, you kill them. This time, they went purposely to get this man released, and they released him and it was the army that killed him on the way. So every question should be directed to the military,� he asserted.
Nevertheless, the Ijaw leader appealed to Ijaw youths not take the law into their hands, saying: �What has happened has happened. There should be no reprisal. There should be no fighting back. Let the Federal Government make amend by compensating the families of these boys. That is what I see. We need peace in this area and I am also using this opportunity to appeal to our youths to allow the oil companies to go back to their jobs. There should be a re-entry of these people, we cannot continue at this rate. It affects us economically.
FG rejects US Marines
Meantime, Special Assistance to the United States President on Security in the Gulf of Guinea, Mrs Linda Greenfield, had last week indicated the interest of the US government to assist President Olusegun Obasanjo to tackle the security concerns in the Niger Delta .
But reacting in Uzzeba, Owan West Local Government Council of Edo State, Special Adviser to President Obasanjo on Policy and Programmes Monitoring, Professor Julius Ihonvbere, said the Federal Government would only accept logistical and technological support but not deployment of American Marines.
He said Nigerian government was capable of curbing the restiveness in the area. According to him, �for technical assistance, yes. Logistical support, yes. They have satellites, so they can see things going on. So, with their superior technology, they can offer this to us. They have training experiences all over the world. But in the sense of dealing with the practical issue on ground in the Niger Delta, the Federal Government of Nigeria is capable of deploying logistical, military, security and other resources needed.
�The Obasanjo government believes in peace, dialogue and consultations and that is what we have been doing in the Niger Delta overtime. I have seen some youth groups, elders of the area coming to Abuja to declare their loyalty to the President. In fact, very soon the Itsekiri youth movement is also coming to see the President. The President has an open door policy. Any group that wants to see him will see him and he will tell them the truth.
�This administration will do every thing to see that the problems of the Niger Delta become a thing of the past but we will never do that to the detriment of the nation. I know that more than any president in this country, this present administration has shown more sensitivity to the plight of the Niger Delta. I am from the Niger Delta too, so I feel the pains of our people.
�But it is not the Federal Government that the people are actually holding responsible because I talk to many of these young people. They blamed years of neglect on the oil companies, the local governments and in some cases the state goverments. So, I think the issue is that there is new discuss, there is a new re-alignment of forces and there is a new commitment. And if at all these levels, everybody joins hands there, is no reason why we cannot improve the area,� he said.
On the purported threat by some Ijaw leaders over the recent clamp down on some militant youths in the region by men of the Joint Task Force (JTF), Professor Ihonvbere described it as �unnecessary,� noting that �each time these leaders have meetings, they should first of all ask themselves what they have done to bring peace to their communities. They are leaders in these communities and have the responsibility to call these boys to order because they know them, but they never did.
�So instead of sitting down always to say they will resist the Federal Government, they should resist those who are creating instability, tension and insecurity in that particular area. That is number one. Number two, there is no fight between the Federal Government and the Ijaw. If they have ideas that will help the government resolve the problem, let them put them forward.
�Somebody who cannot ask a local government chairman how many boreholes he had sunk since 1999 has no locus standi to ask the Federal Government what it had done in the Niger Delta especially when the Federal Government is not owing any state or local government a kobo. So I believe that if they are holding meetings to resist the Federal Government, this is uncalled for and it is just an attempt to grandstand politically,� he said.