THE Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta, MEND yesterday, hijacked a cargo ship and took about 24 foreign nationals on board hostage at the Chanomi Creeks in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State.
The militant group gave the Federal Government 72-hour ultimatum to meet its demands or all the hostages would be eliminated and the ship destroyed. Delta State government, last night, confirmed the hijack, saying the general cargo ship belonging to a firm identified as Bacoliner was stopped and seized at Okerenkoko, yesterday morning.
The state government, however, said the hostages included six crew members of the ship. It said Governor James Ibori was already intervening in the matter. �The Philippinos, we understand, are okay,� the governor’s spokesman, Mr. Sheddy Ozoene, told Sunday Vanguard.
An official of MEND who confirmed that the organization was responsible for the kidnap to Sunday Vanguard in an interview on phone said the hostages were in safe condition, as at 7.30 pm but their identities were not confirmed. The group is demanding the immediate release of the former governor of Bayelsa state, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and the leader of the Niger-Delta Delta Peoples Volunteer Front, Alhaji M. Asari-Dokubo, who is standing trial for treasonable offeces.
It maintained that the reasons given so far by the Federal Government for their continued detention do not hold water and warned that except they were released, MEND would continue with its liberation struggle. �If they think that we do not mean it, let them not listen to us, we will bomb and destroy the Chevron Oil Tank Farm in Escravos.” ‘Another reason for the action�, he said, �is that MEND is disenchanted with the fraudulent diversion of the 13 per cent derivation funds by the governments of Rivers and Bayelsa states and we want them to account for the money collected on behalf of the people of the two states in particular�.
He said the group also wants the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to pay the Ijaws and the entire people of the Niger-Delta would not sit and watch the governments misappropriate money belonging to the people. Besides, the organization said it was unhappy with the manner the Ijaws of Warri were being treated by the state government, warning that if the issue of resettling the Ijaws of Warri were not tackled before the general elections, this year, �there will be trouble in Delta state�.
MEND is also asking for the payment of $1.5 billion to the Ijaw aborigenes of Bayelsa state by the Shell Petroleum Development Company, saying that since the court ordered the oil company to pay the money, it had been foot-dragging. �Our forces are ready for them, let them venture into the creeks and meet us�, he added. Also, it is demanding for the payment of N1.5 billion each for the nine Ijaw freedom fighters that were killed, last year, while on a mission to rescued a kidnapped official of the SPDC, the late Mr. Nelson Ujeya, who, himself, was killed in a fierce combat with soldiers.
Efforts, yesterday, to contact the Commander of the Joint Task Force in the Niger-Delta, Brigadier General Alfred Ilogho for comments proved abortive, as he was out of reach on his cell phone.