The militants were at loggerheads also over the former ‘General Officer Commanding’, GOC, of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta, MEND, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, who had denied involvement in the bombings in the oil-rich region, but his name keeps springing up.
This happened on a day Tompolo appealed to the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), which has claimed responsibility for the bombings, to put a halt to its activities, saying, “You have not only succeeded in militarizing the Niger Delta region now, but you have also succeeded in giving birth to so many negotiators and political jobbers within the government circle, who are very serious rumour peddlers in the country now.”
Oduku raises the alarm
Meanwhile, the Commandant General of the Riverine Security (Coast Guard of the Federation), Commander Bibi Oduku, whose organization is collaborating with security agencies to track down criminals on the waterways, yesterday, said:
“We received information that NDA’s next targets are Choba Bridge, Rivers State, Kaiama Bridge, Patani, Imo River Bridge between Rivers and Abia; and the bridge linking Rivers and Akwa-Ibom in Ogoni axis.
“The militant group also plans to bomb the Nigeria Port Authority, NPA, Warri; NPA, Port Harcourt; NPA Onne; NPA Calabar; MTN; Airtel; Glo and Etisalat facilities in the Niger Delta region with other major oil and gas facilities. Security agencies must take fast action to forestall the attacks.”
Crack
The NDA has said it is opposed to negotiations with government and declared, last Wednesday: “This is to inform the general public that we are not negotiating with any committee. If the Federal Government is discussing with any group, they are doing that on their own.”
But the Joint Revolutionary Council, JRC, of the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Front, JNDLF, the presumed umbrella group of militants in the region, countered the Avengers, at the weekend, saying militants would negotiate with government.
The JRC ‘General Duties’, Akotebe Darikoro, in a statement, with three others, suggested that the cluster was already discussing with government.
The group went on: “We shall continue to engage in dialogue with the Federal Government if our demands are met. “Our representatives in the dialogue, especially the governors and others, will not betray our demands with the Federal Government.
Any betrayal on their own part shall be viewed as betrayal of the entire region and we shall go after them immediately as they know our mode of operation in which they will not escape from us.”
Also reacting to a plea by MEND that it should give President Muhammadu Buhari a breather, the NDA, in a statement by its spokesperson, ‘Brig General’ Mudoch Agbinobi, said MEND was a band of criminal elements and political sidekicks of one of the South-South governors and an ex-governor from the region. It said:
“The NDA is unperturbed, we have a mandate that is clearly a departure from those old tactics of the defunct so-called MEND that indulged in kidnapping, hostage taking, sea piracy, illegal oil bunkering, bank robberies and social crimes.”
Twists and turns NDA has been manifestly antagonistic to Tompolo since the former militant leader took newspaper space, early last month, to condemn its violent activities. It issued him a three-day ultimatum on May 3 to retract his criticism, which it saw as “taking sides with the Federal Government to fight the Niger Delta people.”
Its words: “We hereby give you a three -day ultimatum to apologize to Niger Delta Avengers in the same national dailies as anything other than that will mean that we shall bring the war to your doorsteps by blowing up all oil installations within your backyard (Gbaramatu Kingdom)”.
Tompolo did not comply with the demand and NDA attacked oil facilities in Gbaramatu Kingdom and other parts of Warri South-West local government area, leading to the invasion of Oporoza, the traditional headquarters of Ijaw Kingdom.
The militant group mocked Tompolo for the invasion of Oporoza; Kurutie, his father’s town and other Ijaw communities, saying the government he teamed up with again swooped on his people and molested them.
Source: Vanguard
Source: Vanguard
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