August 1: Return Home, Militants Advise South-East & South-South Indigenes

*SAY NO GOING BACK ON AUGUST 1

*MEND WORKING TO FREE HENRY OKAH, AVENGERS’ AFFILIATE TELLS FG

The Adaka Boro Avengers (ABA) and other militant groups have asked indigenes of South-East and South-South all over Nigeria to immediately come back home.

Specifically, they called on former President Goodluck Jonathan; elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark; King Alfred Diete Spiff; Ankio Briggs; Joseph Eva; Patrick Fufein, Pastor Good, past and present military personnel from the Niger Delta region, present senators and members of the Houses of Representatives to come to Kaiama for the official declaration of the Niger Delta Republic on August 1.

In a statement issued on Sunday, July 24, General Edmos Ayayeibo, the group’s spokesman, reiterated the earlier order that Northerners and South Westerners should vacate the South-South before August 1.

He warned the Federal Government to “move out all military personnel and all government agencies out of the Niger Delta,” noting that “failure will lead to destruction of military barracks and personnel.”

General Ayayeibo also warned that non-indigenes of South-South and SouthEast who remained in Niger Delta after the declaration of independence would have themselves to blame.

“The Nigerian community is aware of what happened some weeks back after our seven days ultimatum given to the multinational oil companies in the Niger Delta. Every one witnessed how many lives that were lost and how many oil installations that were destroyed,”
General Ayayeibo said. The statement reads in part, “We are also using this medium to call on the Niger Delta famous sons and daughters. Pa E. K. Clark, King Alfred Diete Spiff, His Excellency Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Ankio Briggs, Joseph Eva, Patrick Fufein, Pastor Good, the children of late Pa Isaac Adaka Boro, past and present military personnel from the Niger Delta region. “Past and present governors from the Niger Delta, past and present senators and Houses of Representatives members.

“Finally all sons and daughters of Niger Delta Republic to come to Kaiama for the official declaration of the Niger Delta Republic.”

Independent recalls that on Wednesday, July 20, leaders of the Hausa and Yoruba communities in Warri dismissed ABA’s August 1 ultimatum to leave the South South.

One Mallam Rabiu Abdulraman, leader of Hausa youths in the town who spoke in Hausa Quarters, Igbudu area of Warri, said while the Ijaw militants had the right to agitate “for whatever they claim to be their right, they should also remember that other law-abiding Nigerian citizens who believe in the unity of the country have their rights to be protected and live in any part of the country of their choice.”

Similarly, Mr. Abiodun Oguntomisin, a Yoruba youth, said that no group could chase away Yoruba people from any part of Nigeria.

He said that the Yoruba also have militant group in Nigeria known to all and warned the Niger Delta militants to rethink their decision.

Oguntommisin accused the militants of pursuing a selfish agenda and added that “nobody will benefit from this unbridled brigandage of the Niger Delta militants.

Their leaders and our so-called human rights groups should call them to order now instead of keeping quiet in the face of the wreckage they are causing the nation because of imagined or perceived marginalisation by successive governments.”

Independent further recalls that ADA had on Tuesday, July 5, indicated that it would team up with the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) to attack more oil installations in the Niger Delta.

The activities of these militant groups have negatively affected Nigeria’s crude oil production and sales. As at May 2016, Nigeria’s oil production had dropped to 1.65m barrels a day, the lowest output in 22 years, as a result of resurgence of militant activities in the Niger Delta region.

Meanwhile, Ultimate Warriors of Niger Delta (UWND), an affiliate of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), alleged on Sunday that the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which recently unveiled the names of some respected leaders from the region to negotiate on behalf of the militants, is only working to free Henry and Charles Okah.

MEND had earlier confirmed that it was in talks with the Federal Government to end attacks on oil pipelines in the Niger Delta region and urged the Federal Government to ignore NDA, whose members it described as criminals.