Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) has warned that they will renege on the current 60-day ceasefire, if the Federal Government attempts to repair the pipelines they blew up before implementation of the amnesty.
MEND also said they will within 24 hours, free the six crew members captured on the chemical tanker seized on the “Sichem Peace,” but did not release details on how they were going to effect the release.
This is as the Joint Military Task Force in the Niger Delta, has assured repentant militants of safery, dismissing apprehensions that they would be killed if they surrender and hand over their weapons.
JTF Spokesman in the Niger Delta, Colonel Rabe Abubakar, said the apprehension was worrisome, especially in the face of the advances so far made in the amnesty programme, moreso as they have always abided by the rules of their engagement.
The statement, issued by MEND Spokesman, Gbomo Jomo, said the other path to peace should be to allow residents of Gbaramatu communities to return home and settle in their ancestral homes.
“This is a dividend of the current ceasefire and we hope that the Federal Government will begin to reciprocate our gesture by withdrawing JTF from Gbaramatu Community and allow the displaced people return home.
“We wish to make it clear however, that the pipelines and facilities that were destroyed during Hurricane Piper Alpha and Hurricane Moses will be revisited if they are repaired during this time,” the statement noted.
THISDAY sources said attempts to repair some of the pipelines were resisted while that of Chanomi Creek which supplies gas and crude oil was stopped on the orders of a particular militant leader.
Jul222009