MEND Calls for Probe of Amnesty Committee

Dennis Naku

10 June 2011

Port Harcourt — Barely 48-hours after it threatened to resume attacks on oil firms in the Niger Delta, the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) on Wednesday called on the federal government to probe the Post Amnesty Committee (PAC) headed by Kingsley kuku.

MEND said the amnesty committee is ‘absolutely clueless of the Niger Delta issues, saying it was a ploy to plunder the resources of the oil and gas rich area.

The fresh call by the militant group is coming few hours after the Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim arrived Port Harcourt on an official visit.

The militia also called on the apex government to stop giving attention to the ex-militants leaders, who they said are only “fighting to protect the bribes they are currently enjoying from the government.”

The call which was contained in an online statement signed by MEND spokesman, Jomo Gbomo and obtained by Daily Champion criticise the British government for blaming the woes in the region on corrupt governors.

“The real problems of the Niger Delta and core cause of agitation is the pollution and theft of our land by the oil companies and certain Nigerians from outside the region.

Governors and other traitorous indigenes of the Niger Delta are mere collaborators”, the group allege..

It also challenged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to the names of all those implicated in the Halliburton bribery scandal, describing as unfortunate the collaboration of the South African government with its Nigerian counterpart in the arrest and trial of their leader Henry Okah.

The group also dismissed the Joint (Military) Task Force (JTF), for kicking against its earlier statement, pointing out that there was no going back on its promised attacks on the oil industry and the occupying Nigerian government forces in the Niger Delta beginning with the ENI group, the occupying government forces and then all other oil companies operating in the region.

The statement said read, “MEND and other armed groups in the Delta are not sacrificing the lives of their fighters for the provision of social amenities. The people of the region have been at the receiving end of the iniquity of the apex government which has caused

them to suffer from decades of gas flaring and oil spillages which have only being tainted by bribes.

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