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MEND Targets Julius Berger Workers

August 3, 2008

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has served notice to German construction firm, Julius Berger Plc. to vacate all project sites in the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja with effect from Monday, August, 11, 2008.

According to the group in a statement posted on the internet, “in line with their policy of withdrawing from areas of harassment in Nigeria, this should not be a dificult directive after the incident on Friday, August 01, 2008 when one of its vehicles was burnt by an irate mob in Abuja.

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“Had this same scenario occurred in the Niger Delta region, the army would have been called upon to open fire on the mob, then brand them as militants.

“MEND expects Julius Berger, a company which has benefited tremendously from the Niger Delta region where its crude oil was used as barter payment in most cases for the building of Abuja, to apply the same policy of leaving troubled areas as it did when it recently quit the Niger Delta region.”

MEND further warned that “failure to vacate its staff from construction sites and halt all on-going projects in the FCT, Abuja on the deadline will result in unprecedented deadly attacks on the expatriate staff of Julius Berger inside Abuja and other parts of the country until they comply.”

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MEND UPDATES:

The quit notice to Julius Berger released today by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has been reported out of context by some media agencies.
 
MEND is not reacting to the accident in Abuja but to the fact that Julius Berger ought to abandon its projects in Abuja for being harassed the same way they have abandoned the projects in the Niger Delta for the same reason of harassment.
 
This is not the first time the company has caused avoidable deaths from its vehicles to unsafe road and civil construction sites which never meets the international safety standards or from the blunder at the Lagos Five Cowrie creek which caused a deadly rapid resulting in daily drowning incidents never reported.
 
Those who believe we will use the same tactics in the Niger Delta to enforce our quit notice are naive.
 
The only way to avoid the unpleasant consequences of ignoring our threat is for Julius Berger to return back to its abandoned projects in the Niger Delta.
 
Jomo Gbomo


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