A traditional ruler from the oil bearing Egbema kingdom in the Niger Delta, HRM Isaac Thikan, the Agadagba of Egbema and a staunch critic of the military excesses in the region was forcibly abducted on June 24, 2009 by the JTF and taken to their headquarters in Effurun, Warri where we are hearing he may have been killed.
If confirmed to be true, the extra-judicial killing of a royal father after the destruction of the palace of the Gbaramatu monarch will be the last straw and will certainly have dire consequences.
Tompolo has requested that we refute the story carried in the Vanguard newspaper which claimed he was requesting for the amnesty being proposed by the government to criminals through Chief E. K. Clark.
Professor J.P. Clark's suggestion on armistice as against amnesty for freedom fighters is what MEND and Tompolo are favorably disposed to for adoption as the next step to take towards resolving the crisis.
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While the government is talking about amnesty on one hand, the JTF on the other is still carrying out punitive scorched earth policy on communities around oil facilities as a way of permanently relocating the people from their ancestral homes and turning the area into an oil mining area.
The July 2, 2009 attack was carried out on the Abiteye community in Delta state by the JTF. We will not be surprised if the army denies it or simply blame it on unknown soldiers.
The burning down of this community even when the inhabitants have fled will be revenged and it is the oil companies that will bear the brunt.
The recent comments by Vice President Goodluck Jonathan that criminal barons are frustrating the amnesty implementation is not true. The governments insincerity is the major cause where one sees the Interior Minister traveling from Abuja to Port Harcourt to talk to fake representatives of militant commanders but can not travel the shorter distance to see Henry Okah who is dying and needs urgent medical attention.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) hereby warns the investors to the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline project that unless the Niger Delta root issues have been addressed and resolved, any money put into the project will go down the drain as we will ensure that it faces the same fate other pipelines are facing today.
We want to use this opportunity to warn the remaining companies still operating in the region, namely Agip, Total, Shell and Exxon Mobil to leave while there is still time because within the next 72 Hours Hurricane Piper Alpha will be upgraded to Hurricane Moses.
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