Members of the
Black Mambas militant group have threatened to set ablaze over 500 tankers if
nothing was done by the Federal Government, by today, to alleviate the suffering
of commuters on the Calabar-Ikom Road.
Leader of the
group and coordinator of the Niger Delta People Volunteer Front (NDPVF), Asu Simeon Mbi (also known as General Simba)
said his men were determined to execute the operation, if nothing urgent was
done to alleviate the suffering of transporters and other road users.
Mbi, in a
statement, yesterday, vowed that, if nothing was done at the expiration of the
ultimatum, Federal Government would count losses.
“I will set
fire on those tankers queuing along Calabar-Ikom Highway because of one bad
spot the government cannot fill. No matter the security in place, we will
execute it. Just watch and see. Then, the federal government should get ready to count losses again,” Mbi declared.
The group also
warned Biafrans and other communities
around the vicinity to relocate by October 16 “for their own good.”
Meanwhile, the
Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has, once again, intervened on the
failed portions of the Calabar-Ikom highway, after a successful emergency
repairs of the Calabar-Itu-Ikot-Ekpene-Aba federal highway.
The acting
Managing Director, Ibim Semenitari said an urgent intervention was necessary to
alleviate the problems facing commuters and transporters on the road.
She said
despite funding constraints, the commission was ready to take up the challenge
of providing relief for those using the road and stated that NDDC’s engineers
would commence rehabilitation work
immediately.
…Embrace
peace, FG
•Avengers
demand probe of soldiers’ death
From Femi
Folaranmi, Yenagoa and From Ben Dunno, Warri
Special
Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential
Amnesty Programme, Brigadier General Paul Boroh (retd) has, again, appealed to
former agitators in the region to toe the path of peace and dialogue in
resolving differences with the Federal Government
He said
government was aware of the plight of the people of the Niger Delta,
particularly the youths and was making efforts to tackle the problems.
Former
agitators, miffed by the non-payment of their allowances, had threatened to
stage a violent protest and destroy building belonging to the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) since the apex bank had been blamed for the delay in the payment.
But Boroh
explained that it was improper for beneficiaries of the amnesty programme to
issue such a threat on the apex bank, as it only remitted monies to the
appropriate commercial banks on receipt of funds from the Consolidated Revenue
Account.
According to
him, the Treasury Single Account (TSA) being an automated payment system
created to reduce corruption to the barest minimum in the country should not be
associated with the CBN, as the paying bank in this regard.
General Boroh,
who described as fabricated, an alleged text message emanating from his office
on the delays in stipend payments, advised the youths to use their imagination
and time on useful and rewarding undertakings.
He said now
that peace building efforts were in top gear, it would be counterproductive for
the peace ambassadors under the Presidential Amnesty Programme to threaten the
peace in the Niger Delta over outstanding arrears.
Boroh advised
the former agitators to seek peaceful ways of resolving issues through
meaningful dialogue with the appropriate authorities, stressing that his office
was working on different initiatives and programmes that would directly benefit
the amnesty beneficiaries, with a view to reintegrating the 30,000 former
agitators into the society with identifiable sources of livelihood.
Meanwhile, the
dreaded Niger Delta Avenger (NDA) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to
investigate the death of four soldiers in the ongoing special operations in the
Niger Delta, codenamed Operation Crocodile Smile.
The soldiers
who were on a training exercise died last week when their boats capsized in the
Bayelsa creeks.
But the
militant group blamed the accident on “negligence, administrative greed and
corruption within the top military hierarchy who have compromised
professionalism for party politics.”
NDA, in a
statement entitled: “The great white shark”, signed by its spokesperson, Brig.
Gen. Mudoch Agbinibo, described the military exercise as a scam.
“The mission
ongoing in the Niger Delta is a brainchild of orchestrated military corruption.
Mr. President. Operation Crocodile Smiles is nothing but a conduit pipe for
military contracts, political profiteerism and patronages designed for the
stress of your administration’s scarce resources,” it said.
The group,
however, reaffirmed commitment to the ongoing peace process through a genuine
dialogue with some prominent elders and leaders of thoughts from the region to
bring about sustainable peace and
development in the region rather than the obvious warpath the Federal
Government had chosen with the ongoing training of troops in Amphibious warfare
across the coastal states.
According to
the statement: “The High Command of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) and the
entire membership, on behalf of the good people of the Niger Delta offer our
condolences to the families and Mr. President, Muhammadu Buhari, C-In-C of the
armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, on the soldiers murdered in
the ongoing military operation cum exercise codenamed “Operation Crocodile
Smiles.
“Mr.
President, from available facts, the untimely death of these four fine soldiers
in the creeks of Bayelsa and another 16 that was recorded during the first four
days of the exercise along the River Ethiope, in Delta State, but was earlier
covered up, is nothing more than act of murder. Their death is due to
negligence, administrative greed and a corruption within the military
constructed and perfected by the ascendant APC political class from the Niger
Delta and some Abuja paid and bought up interest.”
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