THREE Ijaw groups � the Niger-Delta Federated Communities of Warri, Warri National Congress (WNC), Ijaw Chapter and a section of the Meinbutus are threatening to confront Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) if any harm comes to the President of the Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities (FNDIC), Chief Bello Oboko, or any other Ijaw leader on account of their attending the April 5 stakeholders� conference on the region, convened by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Vanguard reported exclusively, last week, the face-off between the militants and Oboko over the last Abuja parley, leading to his purported removal as FNDIC president.
The 50-member Council of Socio-Economic Development of the Coastal States, which is a product of the conference, would be inaugurated tomorrow in Abuja. President Obasanjo is the Chairman of the council.
Chairman of the WNC, Mr. Collins Eselomo and leaders of the coalition at a press conference in Warri said that: �If anything happens to Oboko, MEND will be held responsible and we will fight back. As far as we are concerned, MEND is a faceless masquerade, and we only know FNDIC because of Oboko.�
Eselomo alleged that the militants were being sponsored by some Ijaw leaders and challenged MEND to come after him if the militants were not afraid.
In his words: �Chief Oboko is a member of the Meinbutus and Meinbutus is the engine room of the Ijaw struggle, both the Kaiama Declaration and the Warri crisis. Anybody that touches him is touching the Meinbutus and I tell you, we will deal with them.�
A top official of MEND in a swift reaction, yesterday, said: �Ordinarily, we are not supposed to join issues with them because their threat is baseless. Collins is nobody in the Ijaw struggle. Their threat should be disregarded. If it were only Collins that attended the Abuja conference, no Ijaw man will bother or answer him. MEND did not say that it was going to kill Oboko or harm him.
“What MEND did was to call Bello Oboko to order. MEND does not harm anybody. Its philosophy is to bring development to the deprived Ijaw communities.
“The threat by Collins and his group has no foundation. For them to say that they are going to protect Oboko is merely playing to the gallery. What MEND is passing across to these dissident Ijaw, that is what we know them as, is that they should stop mortgaging the Ijaw interest.
“Chief Oboko is a respected Ijaw leader who was trusted by the leadership and so, his participating in the conference dazed everybody, and more so, it was announced that the Ijaw would not go to the �jamboree�.
�Our warning to them is that all those going to government to collect money should be careful and we want people to know that if nobody calls them to order, their activities are capable of plunging the Ijaw nation into serious trouble and that is what we are trying to prevent,� he said.
�Any of them who goes to tomorrow�s meeting in Abuja pretending to be representing the Ijaw should not return home from there because we are not going to take the matter lightly with them,� MEND added.