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| Henry Okah, the assumed leader of MEND is currently in prison in South Africa: A South African court convicted Okah of 13 charges of terrorism, including bombings that killed 12 people in Abuja on October 1, 2010. Handing down the verdict, Judge Nels Claassen said, "I have come to the conclusion that the state proved beyond reasonable doubt the guilt of the accused." He has been sentenced to 24 years imprisonment and is currently serving this sentence at the Ebongweni Correctional Centre in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. Throughout the trial he maintained his innocence citing the trial was a result of his denial to support Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan's statements and accusations that the October 1st Independence Day attacks were executed by leaders from Northern Nigeria |
Apparently having been financially-induced by the corrupt Nigerian government, the war-weary first-generation Niger Delta militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, has denounced the recent activities of the Niger Delta Avengers. MEND weighed into the renewed restiveness in the oil-rich region of southern Nigeria a day after the Nigerian government indicated it was now ready to negotiate with the potent fighting force in the region.
In a statement, which resurrects its famous spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, MEND criticised the new militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers, waging a campaign against oil production in Nigeria and warned “communities harbouring” members of the Niger Delta Avengers to immediately stop collaborating with the militants.
MEND warned the communities to realise that they are not protected by “the extant principles of international and or municipal law during a conflict” and said that the Avengers attacks on pipelines were “unprovoked”.
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| Ateke Tom, the big chief of the Mend, with his boys, in one of the eleven camps he ruled in the mangrove of the Niger Delta on the 9th of February 2009. | Veronique de Viguerie/Getty Images |
The group commended President Muhammadu Buhari, whom it endorsed in the 2015 elections, for taking a first step to cleaning up the devastated Ogoniland and slammed former President Goodluck Jonathan saying even though he is from the Niger Delta, his six years in office did not benefit Ogoni.
This statement, released on Tuesday, June 7, 2016 comes a day after Nigeria’s minister of state for petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu announced that the federal government had set up a committee to negotiate with the Niger Delta militants.
“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),” Gbomo said.
“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.
“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.”
-The Trent
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