Recently the rank of the militants in the Niger Delta has been depleted by a combination of the land and air raids on their strong hold. Most hit were their dens in the creeks that seemed impregnable some years ago.
MilitantsOIn this interview, the Spokesman for the unbrella body of the militants, Movement For The Survival said that the militants that were killed were members of small gangs that would not affect the them at all. He insisted that the JTF knows their position and soldiers cannot cripple them at all.
Excerpts of the interview with MEND:
The inroad being made by the JTF recently in Rivers State: killing and arresting top militant leaders; burning of their homes; and sustained attacks tend to indicate that it is winning the war against militants in the Niger-Delta, If not, why not?
What the JTF has achieved in Rivers can be described as a dubious inroad because it was being carried out during a unilateral ceasefire and at a time when most groups and individuals believed a peace process was in place.
The arrest of Mr. Jackrich was done, not during a confrontation but when he responded to a peace invitation by a royal father and elder. In the case of Tubotamuno Angolia, he did not put up a struggle where and when he was accosted. When you kill a man who has surrendered peacefully and handcuffed, that is not victory but cowardice.
Then bombing houses of perceived militants from the air during a cease-fire is also cowardly and an act of bad faith.
Take a look at the different militants and militant leaders killed and arrested , as well their houses burnt in recent times by the JTF forces and tell me whether they are not key commanders of the MEND, and why what happened to them should not be taken as a huge success on the part of the JTF?
All those mentioned are not key militant figures. The JTF knows where we are but dare not carry out the sort of adventure they are doing against small gangs, which ought to be carried out by the police force.
When they ventured to one of our camps recently, we disabled the attack helicopter with heavy machine gun fire. Top government functionaries have visited our camps in the past and the JTF know where the real camps are in Delta, Ondo, Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom and Edo which are no-go areas.
I want you to be specific on the implication of the arrest of Ateke Tom’s hitman, Barikpoa Nwinam, popularly known as Ecomog, arrest of Soboma George in the New Year in the house of a chief in Abonema, burning of Soboma George and Adumu George’s house by the JTF and a host of others recently killed to the assumed invincibility of the MEND?
There are dire consequences for the murder of Mr Angolia and many other youths in that region as well as the cowardly arrest of Mr. Jackrich under the circumstances surrounding his arrest.
MEND has said such behavior is not acceptable and has directed every commander to commence with “Operation Delete”. We will start deleting randomly the names of military personnel serving in the Niger Delta from the forces registry by covert random attacks. We will also support families who have lost their sons to extra-judicial killings by the military and police to revenge such killings.
It is now an eye for two eyes.
Please identify your members arrested and killed in the past two months by the JTF, the conditions they were killed or arrested and tell me how the MEND sees the development?
We will not identify our members killed in the media out of respect for their their families. MEND sees the trend of extra-judicial killings as worrisome state supported terrorism against its own citizens. Very soon, a lot of widows will fill the barracks. That is a solemn promise we have made to the children of Mr. Angolia.
The Nigeria Navy had also deployed four new MANTRA class and seaward defence boats as well as two new Augusta helicopters to fight militants in the Niger-Delta, is the MEND not scared that the military would soon over run it?
Ha ha ha! I am surprised that you seem to believe in the fraud called the armed forces of Nigeria. So it had to take the birth of militants before our Navy realized they needed ships and helicopters to defend the country that is close to 50 years old?
These guys are jokers and we just laugh at the show they are putting up which is not impressive at all. First of all, those ships created another business opportunity for some people to make money at the MoD.
Then those individuals manning it are not committed to an unjust fight except the Northerners in their midst. The ships and helicopter are useless at night or in fog and very soon they will pack up for a lack of maintenance the way the other ships in the naval bases are just occupying ornamental positions.
The day the navy attacks our positions with any of their new toys will be the day Nigerians will be astonished that the fraud has been uncovered because they will be disgraced.
Why does it seem as if there is a continued division in the MEND despite the fact that it is the same Niger-Delta struggle, particularly as you have kept on disowning a group that calls itself Ondo MEND and the group acts as if it is not aware of its rejection?
Those guys in Ondo claiming to be MEND have sadly become involved in local politics and allowing themselves to be used by politicians and businessmen/politician-militants to the point that they have become myopic. MEND has a bigger vision for the region and does not involve itself with political thuggery.
Now, who are those against Dokubo-Asari in the Niger-Delta struggle, they reportedly met at Oloibiri and you were said to have distanced the MEND from their suspension of Asari, what is the bone of contention?
Dokubo Asari should talk less and remove the log from his own eyes to be embraced. Now is the time for every one of us to come together because our enemy, the Nigerian state led by the Northern region is well defined. His obsession with still calling Okah names is an irritation to many.
Is the MEND in anyway uncomfortable with the role of Dokubo-Asari at the moment, particularly as he has joined forces with those calling for the release of Henry Okah of late?
We are not uncomfortable with Asari because we are all fighting the same fight using the same principles but surely under different tactics and approach. His call for Okah’s release is a welcome development and a sign of an emerging maturity.
Put this way, will you describe the feelings of anger against Dokubo-Asari by some militants as justified but his purported suspension as illegal?
A good leader does not say everything that comes to his heart as Asari boasts his name suggests. Such a person can be dangerous and endanger the lives of many as he once did with his outbursts and tirades against Okah.
If it is illegal, is anything being done to bring the orchestrators to order?
MEND is reaching out to others to calm nerves but that is really not our focus since more important issues have to be dealt with for the sake of the impoverished oil bearing communities.
Bayelsa and Rivers state governments have continuously warned militant groups to steer clear of the states, that they are not wanted, why are you people setting up more militant camps in these states?
In the first place, these state governments are not recognized by the people and as such do not have the moral justification to talk.
Militants are a by-product of the injustice in the land and can only go away when there is justice. Our presence put Goodluck Jonathan in office today, it forced the slow Yar’Adua regime to take certain action, even though they are delay tactics to appease the people, we are making the oil companies more responsible and have created publicity for the regions ills to be seen by the world.
Militants are more relevant than the governments in the Niger Delta. We are setting up more camps the same way banks are setting up more branches. We can see that the future of a tribalistic Nigeria is bleak and there will be a time for war before peace.
Are you aware that in some communities in the Niger-Delta, the people who the MEND claim to be protecting their interest are inviting the JTF to come and protect them on the grounds that the militants are intimidating and making life unbearable for them, is it not irony?
Those communities calling for the JTF are doing that with the prompting of people who cannot see the bigger picture.
They do not know the difference between an army of occupation and a legitimate army. Calling on soldiers that rape, harass civilians, bunker oil and crime as their guardian is ironic. The communities that feel the pain want an Obama type change which only can be achieved by force.
The thinking now in the Niger-Delta is that the era of violence as a means of actualizing the Niger-Delta struggle should be over; does the MEND believe in this widely held view?
We will all be deceiving ourselves if we believe that dialogue with a deaf man makes sense when one does not understand the sign language. If over 50 years of dialogue has not achieved what 3 years of an armed struggle has achieved, then we will continue with the winning formula. And again, remember that a cease-fire during hostilities is a period of dialogue which the government has not yet taken advantage of.
Everybody gets up and makes comments in the region in the name of the MEND, does this body not have a defined structure or anybody can key into it and use its name to make trouble?
Fraudsters are using the names of the president, vice, senate, central bank governor etc to impersonate or perpetrate fraud. It is difficult to curb.
Ours is even dicey because we are an organization without a face. Responsible journalists the world over know that any communication other than from our official e-mail address ought to be verified.
Those, who do not verify, do so in order to sell their papers, using our name. This is very common only with some local newspaper houses.
Since N-Delta leaders, led by Chief Edwin Clark requested the MEND to give them time dialogue with the government, has the group given them a time limit to finish their discussion and come up with feasible options after which each person will be for himself and God for everybody?
We are aware that the government has no respect for our leaders, elders and royal fathers. Even the report of the Niger-Delta Technical Committee (NDTC) has been thrown to one corner of the President’s office floor. Don’t be surprised when you buy akara or fried yam and realize the wrapping is the original report. It is coming to a time when only international mediators can put both sides apart.
Hope the MEND sees the tour of the Niger-Delta states by the two Ministers of the Niger-Delta as a welcome development?
We see it as unnecessary waste of time. Those two jokers called ministers don’t seem to get it. They are running the show like typical civil servants and expect to perform? The captains of new generation banks do not need to visit every governor to tell them what they already know.
Instead, these jokers must sit in their offices and start working immediately.The other day one of the ministers was begging our commander to help secure the British hostages for a fee to boast his profile. When did a Minister become a hostage negotiator?
What is the latest news on the health of Henry Okah and what is the MEND saying or not saying?
We do not have information on his current health status. But we have made it clear that the fates of the two British hostages are tied to his. We do not need to elaborate on what that means.
Don’t you think that relocating the two British hostages would harden the JTF’s stand against the MEND and the best thing is to release them and be free from its bombardments?
In the first place, the JTF has no clue where they are stationed and that is why they have been bombarding innocent villages in the name of searching for hostages. The JTF knows where our camps are located but they dare not come near. We feel sorry for the villages that they use to practice and deceive the public they are working.
Honestly, don’t you think the MEND forces have been depleted with the killing and arrest of most of its henchmen and the best thing is to surrender to the JTF before it completes the routing?
We are waxing stronger everyday in men and material. The JTF has been arresting area boys and calling them militants. We have information on the newly arrived navy boats from our informants and there is a big weakness we will explore if they attempt to use their toys.
But the fact that Ateke Tom has bolted and is hiding in the creek along with other MEND leaders shows the JTF is on top of the situation, do you think otherwise?
The creek is our stronghold and so we do not see living there as a problem. In fact it is to our advantage that we have adapted so well in there and can launch attacks and inflict losses to the oil industry when we decide to. That alone is a big headache to the government and the JTF.
Governor Rotimi Amaechi boasted that he would run the militants out of town, he has practically done that, won’t the MEND give him kudos for living up to his words or is there going to be any surprise for the governor, this year?
He may have run cultists out of town. Militants had never been in the cities, which do not support our style of fighting. No serious militant camps have been in cities such as Yenagoa, Warri, Port-Harcourt,Uyo, Benin,Akure. Amaechi is certainly referring to area boys.