There seemed to be a crack in the leadership of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, (MEND), as the spokesperson for the group, Jomo Gbomo, as declared as null and void the ultimatum given to Bayelsa and Rivers States to set up a commission for the management of the 13 per cent derivation fund accruable to the oil-producing states from the Federation Account.
Both Bayelsa and Rivers States were last week given ultimatum by MEND to set up a commission for the management of the fund or face the wrath of the people in the region.
The group then noted with dismay, the level of infrastructural decay in the region, in spite of the huge allocation the respective states in the region collects monthly from the federation account.
Blaming the leaders for the woes bedeviling the region, MEND stressed that the panacea to the mismanagement of fund is the setting up of an independent organ that would be monitoring the day-to-day spending of the funds accrued to the region from the federated account and other sources.
This development has put the leaders from the affected states on their toes, as security is being tightened to forestall break down of law and order, most especially with the termination of the period of ultimatum.
However, with few hours to the end of the ultimatum, one of the leaders of the group Jomo Gbomo, in an online statement, said, that ultimatum was not authorized and therefore, not valid.