The gulf between the Federal Government on the one hand and the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) and the Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB), on the other, which the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, attempted to bridge, has drastically widened as both key stakeholders threw the claims by MEND that it had obtained concessions from the government on their behalf, into the thrash can.
This development and the continued build up of military force in the region have made the execution of Operation Crocodile Smile more imminent as the deal touted by MEND has effectively crumbled.
President of Ijaw Youth Council, Udengs Eradiri, who spoke to Sunday Sun, indicated this summation when he dismissed the purported deal negotiated by MEND as a ruse and wondered how MEND could claim to have negotiated for NDA and IPOB, when emerging facts now show it did not have the mandate of either NDA or IPOB.
He said: “How can MEND say it is negotiating on behalf of the Avengers and bombing is still going on? It is either the Federal Government is on the wrong track or some people are orchestrating it for personal gain or the Federal Government does not have control over it. It is very clear that you can’t be negotiating and pipelines are being destroyed. That means that you are talking to the wrong people.
“I believe that the report of concessions is just a ruse and a ploy by the Federal Government to buy time. For instance, the government declared ceasefire. The question is, who were they fighting? Is there war in the Niger Delta? Is there a Sambisa Forest in the Niger Delta, where Niger Delta Avengers are hiding, which they now want to dislodge them from? The truth is that the Federal Government just wants to commit genocide against our people.
“The massive military mobilization indicates that intelligence services are not doing their job. That is why the military is mobilizing to fight ghosts. So all the talk about the Federal Government’s move to work out a peaceful solution is just a smokescreen.”
Senior Advocate of Nigeria and prominent lawyer as well as human rights activist,
Chief Mike Ozekhome, who also questioned the veracity of the concessions poured cold water on the purported FG-MEND deal, saying that the “cacophonous tones show that the agreement has collapsed,” noting that the “disagreement between the critical stakeholders means that there was no agreement between them.”
He added: “I know that the Niger Delta Avengers has consistently said that MEND cannot speak for it. MEND on the other hand said that NDA is not important and should not be negotiated with. MEND sees the avengers as meddlesome interlopers or miscreants who they severally labelled as destructive elements.
“On its part, NDA believes that MEND comprises the older generation or older brigade of Niger Delta agitators who they feel have eaten so much to their satisfaction and, therefore, they are no longer fighting for the good of the people. Therefore, there is a strong ideological difference between the two camps. The elders of the Ijaw nation or the leaders of the Niger Delta – the Ijaw, Urhobo, Itsekiri and the Isoko feel that MEND may not necessarily be negotiating on their behalf.
On account of this obvious fact, Ozekhome said: “I, therefore, think that the Federal Government should do more of diplomatic engineering to find common grounds among critical stakeholders (MEND, NDA, IPOB, elders and leaders in the area and the Igbo race) and bring all of them on board because you cannot shave anybody’s head in his absence. So the Federal Government may be negotiating with the wrong people as it did sometime ago when it negotiated with people who were not the real Boko Haram; that was why the negotiation with Boko Haram broke down. The Federal Government has to be very discerning, by using the intelligence gathering to identify the real leaders of the groups. Otherwise it may buy a pig in a book. In other words, it may be doing the wrong thing.”
Recall that a week ago, MEND through its spokesman, Jomo Gbomo said that preliminary deliberations with the Federal Government team had resulted in some key concessions by the government to facilitate the end of the bombing of oil facilities by NDA.
In the statement it issued, MEND said: “Thus far, the deliberations have been fruitful. Various concessions and guarantees have already been secured; some of which include, but are not limited to: release of Henry Okah, Charles Okah and Obi Nwabueze; review of the life sentence handed to Mr. Edmund Ebiware; based on a proposal put forward by the Aaron Team representative for Abia and Imo states, Senator Adolphus Wabara, conditional release of IPOB Leader, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu and others if they renounce their agitation for a “Biafra Republic”; that Mr. Government Ekpemupolo shall not be arrested, harassed and/or intimidated whenever he makes himself available as a delegate of the MEND Aaron Team 2; that, the American international arbitrator and conflict negotiator, Dr. Judith Asuni shall be accepted as the representative of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) on the MEND Aaron Team; that the criminal charges against Urhobo freedom fighter, Mr. Kelvin Prosper Oniarah shall be reviewed; that, the 2008 life sentence handed to seven soldiers who actively supported the Niger Delta struggle be reviewed under the Presidential Amnesty Programme.
The affected persons are: Major Suleiman Alabi Akubo, Sgt Mathias Peter, Lance Cpl Alexander Davou, and Lance Cpl Moses Nwaigwe, L.Cpl Nnandi Anene, L.Cpl Taatihi Emmanuel, and Pte Caleb Bawa.
The group listed the top Niger Delta leaders who, it claimed, brokered the deal: the Chairman of Zenith Bank Plc, Jim Ovia, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Ibe Kachikwu, former Senate President, Adolphus Wabara and Senator Florence Ita-Giwa.
Gbomo further said that MEND received firm assurances from the Federal Government that “Operation Crocodile Smile” is an innocuous exercise in the national interest.” He added that President Muhammadu Buhari and the MEND Aaron Team 2 would hold between 22nd and 26th August even as he said that discussions with other critical stakeholders including governments of Niger Delta states would be rounded off by October to achieve the desired peace in the region.”
In the intervening period since MEND disclosed the concessions, there has been deafening silence on the part of the Federal Government. Like the Sphinx, it maintained sealed lips over the claims by MEND on the concessions. At the Presidency, officials rebuffed any attempt to obtain a word from them on what is considered a “very sensitive issue.” Nobody wants to be quoted on or even to offer off the record comments.
“I will not deny or confirm that report. I only read it in the newspapers and heard on the news like everybody else,” one of the officials said.
Ozekhome described the government’s silence as “curious” and surmised that MEND was clapping with one hand.
“If there had been an agreement with the Federal Government, what one would have expected the government to do was to come out immediately to own up. In fact, the first statement ought not to have come from MEND, but through its spokesman stating that the government had engaged MEND and also disclose what was discussed and agreed on,” Ozekhome said. – The Sun.
