Many NDA members were ex-MEND commanders, fighters

WARRI- THE Movement for
 the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, has warned communities in
the Niger Delta providing cover for criminals such as members of the
Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, that they were not protected by the extant
principles of international and/or municipal law during a conflict.

This is even as it disclosed in statement by its spokesperson, Jomo
Gbomo, that many members of the Niger Delta Avengers involved in the
current bombings of oil installations in the region were mostly its
former commanders and fighters that accepted amnesty from the Federal
Government in 2009 without clear understanding.

Its words: “However, we hereby remind our communities, which harbour
criminals such as members of the NDA that their communities are not
protected by the extant principles of international and/or municipal law
 during a conflict.”

Notwithstanding, the group urged the Nigerian military high command to
stick to the rules of engagement and international best practices.”

The group commiserated with the affected persons, families and
communities and called on the international community as well as the
National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to dispatch relief materials
 to the region, as a matter of utmost priority.

“The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND notes with
grave concern the recent renewed spate of unprovoked and persistent
attacks on Nigeria’s oil installations by the Niger Delta Avengers, NDA,
 many of whom were MEND’s commanders and fighters who jumped on the
Presidential Amnesty gravy train without knowing why they took up arms
in the first place.

“What are more worrisome to us is the ungodly conspiracy of silence of
the region’s elite and their tacit support of the NDA’s conduct under
the pretext of a so-called “Niger Delta struggle,” it said.

MEND accused the region’s elite of going “to sleep in luxury hotel
suites in Abuja and around the world for the entire duration of the 6
years of Mr. Jonathan’s binge and unmitigated disaster as President.”

It, however, commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his political will
 and sagacity in commencing the clean up of Ogoni land in Niger Delta
region with the June 2 launch and implementation of the United Nations
Environmental Programme UNEP, Report.

The militant group said Buhari’s decision was heartwarming in view of
the fact that a son of the region, former President Goodluck Jonathan,
was in charge for six years and did nothing about the clean up.

Even as the Federal Government had ordered a two-week ceasefire, it
said: “Nevertheless, equally of grave concern to MEND are the
disproportionate use of force and the sheer unimaginable dimension of
the ongoing reprisal Nigerian military onslaught in the Niger Delta
region.”

It bemoaned “the attendant collateral damage done to the political,
social and economic lives of the ordinary people, especially in the Ijaw
 communities.”