February 16, 2008
Recently, you raised a position on the kidnapping incident in Rivers state involving the wife of Chief Lulu-Briggs. You mentioned that people close to his wife may be behind the incident even though you did not provide complete details. When should we expect your complete response?
We have incontrovertible evidence to believe that some very close associates of Mrs. Lulu-Briggs worked assiduously to ensure that money was released to the kidnappers.
Let me make this clear. The Ijaw Youth Leaders Forum (IYLF) which included Alhaji Dokubo-Asari, the national president of the Ijaw Youth Council Dr Chris Ekiyor, Government Ekpemukpolo and others made it clear that no money be released to the kidnappers as they had already put machineries on ground to ensure her return.
However, Madam Lulu-Briggs who was in the custody of the kidnappers had already started calling top bankers and telling them to make money available as soon as possible even in total disregard to the fact that her husband had also agreed that no money should be released. We had unearthed the identity of the kidnappers and getting her out was only a matter of hours.
Mrs. Lulu-Briggs made it clear to the kidnappers that she had the money and therefore she could get them paid after all she was the vice-chairman of Moni-Pulo, an indigenous oil firm owned by Chief Lulu-Briggs and run by herself and some of her close relatives.
While in the custody of the kidnappers, Mrs. Lulu-Briggs was informed by her assistant that specific instructions had been made to ensure that money was not released to the kidnappers. Even then, she did not relent. She went ahead to secretly detail one of her sisters to ensure delivery of money to the hostage takers. Her personal assistant who sent the cell phone number of this sister of hers can be verified for the identity of the sister in question.
You described the attack on Chief Lulu-Briggs as shameful. Can you be more explicit?
Anyone who sets out to attack Chief OB Lulu-Briggs for no just cause is cursed. The man has done a lot for his people, Ijaws and the Niger delta at large. He has been sowing petro-dollars into the lives of people of the Niger Delta. From University of Port Harcourt down to Niger Delta University in Amassoma, Bayelsa State, he is doing good things. It is only imperative that good work be rewarded and not punished.
Similarly his unassuming multimillionaire son Dumo Lulu-Briggs has been doing good too. Dumo Lulu-Briggs co-owns an oil company with extensive marginal field rights. Today his company is providing jobs and opportunities for hundreds of Niger Deltans. He also owns quite a number of anchor handler vessels, barges etc which are today creating jobs and tremendous value for his people. How can you repay such people with evil?
We issued an unreserved apology to the family of Chief OB Lulu-Briggs. We stand by it. We are looking forward to an official acceptance of our apology.
Are you aware of the extradition to Nigeria of Henry Okah? What is your position on this?
In 2005, acting on false and cursed advice provided to him by his advisers and some overzealous Niger Deltans, General Olusegun Obasanjo arrested and placed in solitary confinement for about eighteen months, the flag bearer of the Ijaw and Niger Delta struggle Alhaji Dokubo-Asari. He was made to believe that Dokubo-Asari was capable of deploying very little nuisance value at the time.
The arrest of Dokubo-Asari led to the conception and emergence of the Movement for the emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).
For three years and running, MEND has held Nigeria hostage.
Let us therefore watch with trepidation, what will become of Nigeria with the arrest of our brother, friend and son Henry Okah.
I must assure you all that the unrest in the Niger Delta is about to begin.
Umar Musa Yar Ádua and his Vice President Jonathan have breached the accord for peace in the Niger Delta. Incompetence has eaten into the fabric of our lands. Those who stay in glass houses must never throw stones.
The people of the Niger Delta are a people who have been unjustly treated for more than six decades now.
The Niger Delta today provides the largest population of harlots, prostitutes and bandits. HIV/AIDS is on the rampage. These represent the social degradation that pervades our lands due to the exploitation of crude oil.
People like Oronto Douglas were at the forefront of an intellectual and non-violent agitation for the rights of the people of the Niger Delta to be restored. Environmental, political, economic and social rights had been stripped off from our people. What success did they achieve?
While they were able to win international acceptance, they could not win the minds of the lords of the contraption called Nigeria. The Nigerian state has been very ungrateful to the people of the Niger Delta.
The only solution to the quest of the people of the Niger Delta can be achieved only through armed struggle. We will fight for the liberation of our people. We will fight to ensure that that which the Almighty God has given us to us must be given to us.
Woe unto those who wish us to fail for they shall be disappointed.
Woe unto the Ijaw and Niger delta elites who have chosen to sell their birthright for a pot of pottage for they shall be damned.
Our people seek a better life. Our demands are just and true.
We demand that the funds that are raised from oil production be sowed in our lands. Is there anything wrong in that? Is there?
For more than six decades now, more than 500 billion dollars have been reaped from the lands and resources of the people of the Niger Delta. How much of these funds have been ploughed back into developing infrastructures in the Niger Delta? How much?
Education, health care, social amenities etc etc.. How much value has been created for our people?
We maintain that the only solution to dealing with the lack of development in the Niger Delta today is through strategic and systemic deployment of armed struggle across the length and breadth of the Niger Delta. We will succeed because we must.
The revolutionary is unstoppable.
The people of the Niger Delta deserve a better life. The Almighty God blessed us in His infinite wisdom. Why should anyone try to shortchange us?
We will fight to the end. The unrest is about to begin.
Cynthia Whyte
JRC (comprising MEND, Reformed NDPVF and the Martyrs Brigade)
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