| Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has threatened to unleash another round of mayhem in the Niger Delta region this month in apparent reaction to the outcome of the recent presidential parley in Abuja. Besides, the militants have accused Governors Peter Odili and Goodluck Jonathan of Rivers and Bayelsa states respectively of having compromised the Niger Delta struggle. They also accused Minister of State for Petroleum, Edmund Daukoru, of �hoodwinking� on behalf of the Federal Government, Niger Delta leaders to the Abuja parley. The Abuja parley, held at the instance of President Olusegun Obasanjo, agreed, among other things, to set up a presidential council on the socio-economic development of the Niger Delta region. But the militants vowed to strike on the April 25, seven days after the expected inauguration of the council on April 18. MEND�s position appears to have added a disturbing dimension to the crisis, as it warned would-be members of the presidential council to stay away. In a press release by Ebipadei Brutus, MEND expressed dissatisfaction with the Federal Government move, describing it as a �constipation� and �presidential felony�. The statement said in part: �The religion of the movement of the emancipation of the Niger delta region had examined the extremities of the constituencies of the conspiracies of political genocide orchestrated by the pallid poultry strategies of the Obasanjo Republic of Nigeria, as he, Mr President deems it timely to model a weapon of mass presidential madness in the Aso-Rock veto around the adoption of a committee of socio-economic development of coastal states, a precondition perfected to further castrate the abandoned Niger Delta people to live as celebrated pawns in delirious chess board of one paranoiac national emperor of the Nigerian people. �It would definitely call for a surprise party in the room of public opinion why MEND saw it timely to step into the socio-economic turbulence surrounding the political determination of Nigeria and the foreboding tale it portends for the Niger Delta child in relation to the hasty gimmicks and cheap political archery brandished by Mr President in his inexpensive rationale to re-evaluate, redefine, refocus and render restitution to the fifty-year-old institutions of calumny yoked on the silence of the Niger Delta people�. |
Apr122006