That is the worst level of rumor that I have heard since Abacha died. Why would we need the support of Islamic radicals to fight our own fight?
This fight is our fight. We will therefore fight it to the finish by any means possible.
Ourpo campaign is based on the fact that while we provide for the existence and sustenance of the Nigerian state, the communities who produce the oil continue to be neglected and despised. Is that not treachery?
The budget of the Nigerian state is prepared based on the price of a barrel of oil all of which is harvested from the Niger Delta. How much of the oil windfall is channeled to the various host communities? Tell me??
How long will this continue? How can we have so much oil and yet be so short changed?
Was MEND truly responsible for the attack on Bonga field?
The attack on Bonga field was carried out by a leading commander of the Niger Delta struggle with strong alliances with the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta. Unfortunately for us, but fortunately for staff of Shell and on-board workers at the Bonga FPSO, mercy and pity overcame him and he refused to deploy rocket propelled weaponry against the offshore facility. Shell would have been counting greater losses now.
However, the Bonga Campaign was just to show those with loud mouths that they should exercise restrain when they get tempted to talk to much. They do not know what we are capable of.
About three years ago, Shell's MD in Nigeria Basil Omiyi (possibly acting in conviction and belief in certain security advice and recommendation) stated that militants could not get near Bonga. Today, he knows better.
Why the attack on Bonga when a Niger Delta Summit is being planned?
Which Niger Delta Summit? You mean the planned caricature jamboree meant to impress the international community? Sorry for them.
Let me tell you. The highest ranking official in the Niger Delta today especially by virtue of the fact that Ijaws are the principal agitators for a better life for the people of the Niger Delta is the President of the Ijaw National Congress Professor Kimse Okoko. Go and find out from him whether the Ijaw National Congress (INC) is principally involved in the planning of the summit. You may also go and find out the key participants that have already been penned down for automatic attendance. The whole thing stinks.
Why would the INC reject a summit if they have full understanding of its planning? We listen to our elders and the mere fact that the INC rejects the summit means we must also reject it in its fullest.
What would you suggest should be done for a quick resolution of the Niger Delta crisis?
My dear brother, we have raised the stakes a little higher. We demand total control of ALL our resources. But just before then, to make it easy for them, we demand a sovereign national conference where the various nationalities that were forcefully conscripted into the Nigerian state must be allowed to state IF they would like to remain in this contraption called Nigeria.
Unfulfilled wives have every right to leave a marriage that is not comfortable for them. The people of the Ijaw and Niger Delta territory do not want to continue in the Nigerian sojourn.
Would the release of funds for the Niger Delta Development Commission ameliorate the sufferings of the people of the various communities of the Niger Delta?
My dear, lef mata. The need for the creation of an interventionist agency to tackle the difficulty faced by the people of the Niger Delta was one of the positions raised by the Willinks Commission of decades and decades ago. The issue at hand is far different now.
The solutions for the problem in the Niger Delta today cannot be found in NDDC which was created by Obasanjo to satisfy his own ego. Its creation does not in any way affect the lives of the people of the Niger Delta.
Those who lord over the Nigerian state are in the habit of subverting the true demands and aspirations of our people. When we ask for a bowl of rice and stew, they will bring us coconut with dry fish and place before the international media before giving it to us? Is that right? We are tired of being taken advantage of.
President Yar 'Adua has ordered a full onslaught against those responsible for the Bonga field attack. Can Niger Delta militants hold their own against the Nigerian forces?
My dear brother, Yar'Adua's will continue to talk to save face. If the armed forces of the Nigerian state attack our people, then we too will attack their people. It will be a war between David and Goliath. Our strength is in our belief in the Almighty God and in the fact that the people of the Niger Delta deserve a better deal. God must stand for us.
If they attack our units, then all the Bantustan states of the Niger Delta must be ready to declare 24 hour curfews because we will take aim on every living thing that carries the banner of the armed forces of the Nigerian state. Every soldier of the Nigerian state (not their families) will bear the brunt of any attack on our units. We have committed ourselves to death IF and WHEN it comes.
Even an amateur gun man can take an easy aim on loitering soldiers of the Nigerian state. They are every where in Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa State.
If they want it, we'll give it to them.
Only yesterday, Saturday 21st June 2008, Chevron suffered a big loss in its Abiteye Olero crude oil line near Escravos resulting in the shutting in of more than 100,000 barrels of oil per day. More of such attacks will continue as long as our people continue to be short changed in the affairs of the Nigerian soldiers.
Violence begats violence. If they attack us, then we too would follow that option. No one has the monopoly of violence. Rebellion against tyranny is righteousness before God. We have suffered enough.
Cynthia Whyte
Spokesperson, Joint Revolutionary Council
(comprising the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta MEND, The Reformed Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force NDPVF& The Martyrs Brigade)
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