Posted by By FEMI FOLARANMI, Yenagoa on
There is a palpable tension in the creeks of Bayelsa State ahead of Saturday's governorship election re-run, following threat by the Movement of the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) to resume hostilities.
There is a palpable tension in the creeks of Bayelsa State ahead of Saturday's governorship election re-run, following threat by the Movement of the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) to resume hostilities.
This is even as the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC) stated categorically that it was not in dialogue with the President Umaru Musa-led Federal Government.
MEND, Bayelsa State, led by Commander Joshua Maciver, had stated over the weekend in a statement that the ceasefire it announced last December was under threat because of the activities of some oil companies and soldiers attached to the Joint Military Task Force (JTF).
The MEND threat is already causing ripples as election materials are expected to be deployed in various parts of the state by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the re-run poll.
Maciver had warned Daewoo not to continue its plan to link its pipeline from the Ogboinbiri flow station to Tebidaba flow station enroute Brass Terminal, because he and his men had concluded plans to resume hostilities this week.
The threat is, however, seen as a way to frustrate the governorship election re-run based on security reasons. JRC in its own statement signed by Cynthia Whtye said it would not dialogue with the Federal Government because of its alleged insincerity.
The group alleged that from the outset the move for reconciliation and peace preached by the Federal Government was conceived with dubious intentions.
The statement read in part: 'We are not impressed with the caricature award of the position of a figure head vice president of the Nigerian state to an Ijaw man.
We are not impressed with the flimsy appointment of an Ijaw as a stoogey chief of defence staff. We are not impressed with the establishment of a lame-duck pseudo-interventionist Niger Delta Development Commission whose only concern is to reward the foot soldiers of the then Obasanjo khakistocracy and now the Yar'Adua aristocracy where the principal players are scions of a hegemonistic northern oligarchy. We do not need your appointments.
We demand just recompense. For too long now, the Nigerian state has continued to dabble, dribble and toy with the hearts, minds and aspirations of the impoverished people of the Niger Delta. Flaunting an exceptional ability to double-speak and an penchant for divisive antics, the government of the Nigerian state has continued to shortchange our people in connivance with a vice president who is surrounded by non-indigenous special advisers with questionable pedigree.
The whole agenda for the enthronement of peace and reconciliation in the Niger Delta has been a dubious one driven by hidden ambitions, doubtful intentions and questionable vision."
The group, promised to deal with those it referred to as bandits who were accused of trying to corrupt the Niger Delta struggle.
However, the Commander of the JTF in Bayelsa State, Lt. Col. Chris Musa has restated the resolve of his men to nip in the bud any planned militants attack.
Musa said military gun boats had been deployed in all the waterways and his men were mentally alert to ensure that the May 24 governorship election re-run was hitch-free.