THE Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has accused the Minister of Interior, who is also the Head of the Presidential Panel on Amnesty for Militants in the Niger Delta, General Godwin Abbe (rtd), of trying to bribe them in order to get their cooperation in sharing the sum of N50 billion budgeted for the amnesty exercise.
MEND made this allegation on Wednesday, but the minister, in a swift reaction, described the allegation as unfounded. The group, in a statement by its spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, said: “It is a shame that the interior minister and his cohorts are offering bribes and incentives to militants in a desperate attempt to get our cooperation in sharing the N50 billion budgeted for the amnesty exercise.
“While it is true that some of us will succumb to the temptation of money as Judas did, there are a majority that will remain steadfast in integrity, honour and a commitment to the people who cannot fight for their rights.”
However, Abbe described the allegation as unfounded. He said the allegation was a mere ploy by the opponents of President Yar’Adua’s good intention to find a lasting solution to the lingering crisis in the region.
Reacting to the allegation through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Tope Ajakaiye, Abbe added that his mandate as the leader of the presidential panel did not include any form of negotiation with the militants.
He said: “The Minister of Interior was appointed by Mr. President to head a committee with the mandate to work out details on amnesty for militants granted by Yar’Adua.
“As you are aware, the committee has since submitted its report to Mr. President and it was announced that President Yar’Adua will consult with the National Council of State and later make pronouncement on the implication of the amnesty issue.
“I believe that the mandate of the committee does not include negotiating with militants and it could not have bribed anybody. “The allegation of bribery could be just a ploy by opponents of the gesture to tarnish the good intention of the Federal Government and should be discarded,” he said.
He clarified that the N50 billion proposed as arms buyback from the militants, who voluntarily accepted the amnesty and surrendered their arms, should not be misconstrued as bribe to anyone of the militia group.
Meanwhile, the militant leaders in the Niger Delta, who showed interest in the Federal Government’s amnesty plan, on Tuesday, have gone back on their promise to surrender their arms.
This is just as the Isoko nation and the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) have called on the armed groups in the creeks of the Delta to embrace peace for meaningful development in the region.
Tom Ateke, Bin Laden, Farah Dagogo, Soboma George and Boyloaf had, through their proxies, at a meeting with the Presidential Panel on Amnesty and Disarmament for Militants in the Niger Delta in Port Harcourt, indicated readiness to take advantage of the Federal Government’s offer.
But MEND, on Wednesday, said the declaration by militant proxies the previous day was the Federal Government’s script.
MEND, which claimed to be speaking for three of the five militant leaders — Farah Dagogo, Boyloaf and Soboma George — whom it referred to as its senior commanders, said it would not compromise its stand.
“The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) categorically denies the orchestrated rumours being peddled by government agents and propagandists that MEND senior commanders, Farah Dagogo, Boyloaf and Soboma George, have agreed to receive amnesty by proxy as carried in some local newspapers.
“We want to reassure our people who are looking up to us that we will never compromise our birthright for a price.
“MEND is waiting to hear if President Yar’Adua has anything new to offer in his expected address on Thursday, June 25, before responding accordingly,” MEND said in its statement by spokesman, Jomo Gbomo.
But one of the prominent ethnic nationalities in the oil-rich region, the Isoko nation, has sent an appeal to restive militant groups in the region to lay down their arms for the Federal Government to articulate its programme for the region.
President General of the Isoko Progressive Union, Elder Peter Ovie Erebi, who made this call in an interview with the Nigerian Tribune in Port Harcourt, however, said the anger of the militants was generally shared in the entire region.
Also lending its voice to the call for peace in the region, the ACF has called on the various armed groups in the region to take advantage of the amnesty arrangement by the Federal Government.
In another development, President Umaru Yar’Adua said on Wednesday that leader of the Niger Delta Volunteer Force, Asari Dokubo was never arrested by security agents even as the president assured that security will be restored in the Niger Delta area by December this year.
Yar’Adua’s statement came few hours after his spokesman, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi told reporters that the president had ordered the release of the militant who was reported to have been arrested at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos on his return from a medical trip to Germany on Tuesday.
According to Yar’Adua, Asari Dokubo was only invited by security agents for routine briefing and that he spent only few hours with the security operatives.
The president assured that Niger Delta would be peaceful and stable by the end of this year, saying that his administration would achieve this, through the implementation of the amnesty package it would announce today and other measures put in place to stop the militancy in the oil-rich area.
The president who came to brief State House reporters with the President of the Russian Federation, Mr. Dimitry Medvedev, who came to Nigeria on official visit having been invited by Yar’Adua, said he had discussed the security situation in the Niger Delta area with Medvedev.