Following the refusal of the Federal Government to dialogue with
Niger Delta militants, the Niger Delta Avengers has vowed to continue
its hostility by bombing oil pipelines in the region. It said it will
not allow the FG export crude oil from the region.
Vanguard reports that the group also denied assumptions that
ex-militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, recently
nominated by Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, as a
member of its Aaron 2 Negotiating Team, was the sponsor of Avengers.
This came as another militant group, Niger Delta Revolutionary
Crusaders, NDRC, declared that it was ready to fight government and the
Saudi Arabia mercenaries it was allegedly engaging over the God-given
resources of the Niger Delta people, while the Ijaw People Development
Initiative, IPDI, insisted that the way out was to conduct a referendum
for the people to decide their future.
Avengers said: “We have made our position clear to the world
that Tompolo had been a friend to the Nigerian government, since the
declaration of Presidential amnesty by President Yar’Adua and he will
continue to be a friend to the government as he cannot be trusted with
our struggle, so he can never be our Sponsor.
“This phase of our struggle encapsulates our determination to
ensure that the petro-dollar from the Niger Delta is not used to develop
the 97 per cent (95 per cent ) of those President Buhari claimed voted
for him as against the five per cent he said did not vote for him and
are not worthy of a Maritime University. Therefore, it is not a
coincidence as far as the Niger Delta struggle is concerned.
“In the first instance, we suspended hostilities in good faith
to see if the government of the day was sincerely speaking when it
announced its dialogue initiative. That was why for strategic reasons we
did not make open declaration of our cessation of hostilities. We
wanted to watch and to show Nigerians and the world the insincerity of
the government’s dialogue plans.
“Until we resumed operations, nobody reached out to us and
government did not establish any genuine platform to address our
grievances.
“Until President Buhari takes our demands seriously and set up a
genuine framework to address the Niger Delta question, we will continue
to obstruct all avenues to export our crude oil to develop his 97 per
cent (95 per cent). In fact, whenever we have any contact to establish a
genuine negotiation and dialogue, we will not hesitate to let the world
know that we are in dialogue with the government and her
representatives.
“This is another phase of the Niger Delta struggle to reclaim
our resources for prosperity. Some mischief-makers can tag it Ijaw
struggle, but our set short, medium and long-term plans are for us the
people of the Niger Delta to control our resources and develop our land
and pay tax to the central government.
“The people of the Niger Delta are born into polluted
environment since the day they discovered oil in Oloibiri in commercial
quality and quantity. The oil companies and the government have been
good in tagging the host communities saboteurs, vandals, etc for
pollution of the environment everyday to evade their responsibility, as
they did in Ogoniland, even though there is an ongoing political charade
they call clean up. However, it is part of the sacrifice Niger Delta
communities and people will bear to take back their land and resources.
“We have stated our objectives, which are in three categories.
It is President Buhari’s responsibility to show political will to
address them, we do not want ‘peace of our time,’ we want ‘peace with
honour.
"There are no new demands on the table, what every past government has given the people of Niger Delta is graveyard peace.”
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