Propelled by the need for the Niger Delta region to speak as a united force, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has disbanded its Aaron Team 2 dialogue and peace initiative, headed by Odein Ajumogobia (SAN) and keyed into Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark’s dialogue template. The group collapsed the Aaron Team 2 structure into the pan-Niger Delta dialogue and peace initiative being led by the Ijaw national leader.
The elder statesman, who was the Minister of Information during the first republic and the Governor of Delta State, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, had two weeks ago, convened stakeholders’ meeting that involved all ethnic nationalities in Warri to end the resumed hostility in the region.
A few days after, the Ultimate Warriors of Niger Delta, a factional militia group urged the Federal Government to be wary of its fraternity with the defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).
Ultimate Warriors’ spokesperson, Sibiri Taiowoh, said MEND had continued to issue supportive statements to scam the Federal Government or give a semblance that it was peace-loving. A week after, another factional militia group in the state, the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate, rejected the choice of Clark and Governor Okowa as their negotiator, describing the stakeholders’ meeting they conveyed in Warri as a ‘charade.’
This disbandment also affected the take-off of the group’s ‘Operation Moses,’ which had been suspended. But MEND yesterday said it would work with Clark, but monitor the pace of progress of the Clark-led team and reserves the right to recall its nominees after six months should they fail to deliver on the Niger Delta questions or the terms establishing them.
The group equally warned the Clark-led peace initiative not to forget that it had been in preliminary talks with the Federal Government as confirmed by President Muhammadu Buhari, hence, they should not engage in any shoddy deal, or deviate from the agreements it had already secured with the Federal Government.
A statement issued by the group in their yesterday post, condemned the extra-judicial killings and deception by the Bayelsa State Government – sponsored militia under the leadership of its former commander, Africanus Ukparasia, aka General Africa. Africanus Ukparasia is an ex-militant, whose agreement with the Presidential Amnesty Programme forbids him from bearing arms for any purpose and any more.
– New Telegraph
