Ex-agitators of the Niger Delta Liberation Force have hailed American soldiers over what they described as successful clampdown on terrorists in parts of the north.
This was contained in a statement signed by the former spokesman for the group, Captain Mark Anthony, copies of which were circulated to journalists in Warri, Delta State, yesterday.
While lauding the US military’s operation in parts of Northern Nigeria, the group stated that the recorded feat was worthy of celebration.
“We, the disbanded Niger Delta fighters of NDLF, led by the late General John Togo, hereby commend and support the ongoing military operations of US soldiers in Northern Nigeria against terrorists,” the statement reads in part.
It noted with concern that terrorists had killed countless Nigerians, “including Muslims, though Christians are the major target.”
The group urged the US government to publicly declare supporters of terrorists, especially Muslim clerics and others, “either in government or in the military”, wanted, arrested and prosecuted for supporting terrorism.
The statement continued, “When we were fighting, we were doing it for inclusion in the natural resources of the Niger Delta. Our fight is, and was, purely an economic struggle for survival.
“We did not kidnap or kill innocent Nigerians. That is why we dissociated ourselves from the later operations of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, who went about detonating bombs at human gatherings, including Warri Edjeba bombing and the Abuja Eagle Square twin bombings.”
The Niger Delta group, however, reminded the federal government that “the present peace in the Niger Delta region is fragile.”
The group lauded government for granting a pipeline surveillance contract to High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, through Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, “among other ex-fighters of the Niger Delta, to protect the nation’s oil facilities.”
It, however, urged government to complement Tompolo’s peace efforts in the region by providing social amenities for residents, “because the people are still living in abject poverty.”
“Government should help High Chief Ekpemupolo’s efforts by not neglecting its responsibilities of providing social amenities in the oil-rich, but poor Niger Delta region.
“Till date, over 95 percent of Ijaw communities have no clean drinking pipe-borne water, no clinics or cottage hospitals, no electricity, no motorable roads and no standard school buildings.
“The federal government should look into funds released to interventionist agencies, especially the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC. The NDDC, over the years, has not met the purpose for which it was created. It has become an agency that enriches political jobbers, leaving its mission and goals unattended, while communities live in squalor and abject poverty with no one to complain to.
“The oil war in the Niger Delta has not ended. We may look tired and weak today, but the younger ones, who have not seen bombs or carried AK-47 rifles and dynamite, and who see the Niger Delta as a conquered or defeated region, may wake up one day and ask us, the elders, a series of questions about the stark underdevelopment of Ijaw communities and other oil-producing communities in the Niger Delta, for which we may not have the answers they seek.
“The continued underdevelopment of the region is a great security concern to global security. We call on US President, Donald Trump to show concern for the oil-rich, but abandoned oil-producing communities neglected by successive Nigerian governments, as this may spark another armed movement by aggrieved youths in the future.”
