COLLAPSE OF CEASEFIRE: MEND issues two-week ultimatum
Vanguard Newspaper 10 July 2016
Vanguard Newspaper 10 July 2016
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SUNDAY VANGUARD, JULY 10, 2016, PAGE 9<br />
THE <strong>COLLAPSE</strong> <strong>OF</strong> <strong>CEASEFIRE</strong><br />
How Buhari dumped<br />
dialogue with<br />
N-Delta militants<br />
By Emma Amaize,<br />
Regional Editor, South-South<br />
& Perez Brisibe<br />
When Nigerians<br />
woke up, last<br />
Monday, to find<br />
that Niger Delta<br />
Avengers, NDA,<br />
had bombed about five oil<br />
facilities belonging to the<br />
Nigeria National Petroleum<br />
Corporation, NNPC, Chevron<br />
Nigeria Limited, CNL, and<br />
Nigeria National Petroleum<br />
Development Company, NPDC,<br />
they were aghast, as there was<br />
supposed to be a ceasefire in the<br />
Niger Delta.<br />
The incidents occurred<br />
between July 1- 4, but when the<br />
militant group claimed to be<br />
blown up yet again blew up an<br />
NPDC manifold, close to Batan,<br />
and <strong>two</strong> NNPC/PPMC crude oil<br />
trunk lines, also in Delta State,<br />
on Tuesday, it was palpable that<br />
there was fire on the mountain.<br />
Since then, the NDA and other<br />
militant groups have, according to<br />
them, intensified bombings in the<br />
region, blowing up NNPC pipeline in<br />
Eleme, Rivers State, on Wednesday,<br />
another three Chevron manifolds at<br />
Diogbolo, Dibi Oil Field, Warri North<br />
Local Government Area in Delta<br />
State, on Thursday, and Nembe 1, 2<br />
and 3 crude trunk lines in Bayelsa and<br />
Rivers states on Friday.<br />
President’s changing tone<br />
The militant group did not give<br />
reason for the resumption of<br />
hostilities, but President<br />
Muhammadu Buhari, in his first<br />
major statement after the renewed<br />
bombings, while receiving some<br />
eminent Nigerians, mostly Muslims,<br />
who paid him sallah homage, insisted<br />
the Nigeria’s unity was not negotiable.<br />
He said: “We have to concentrate on<br />
the militants to try to know how many<br />
of them, in terms of groupings, try to<br />
get in touch with their leadership to<br />
try to persuade them to please give<br />
Nigeria a chance.<br />
“I assure them that when were very<br />
junior officers, we were told by the<br />
Head of State, who was General<br />
Gowon, that to keep Nigeria one is a<br />
task that must be done, we never<br />
thought of oil.<br />
“What we were after is one Nigeria.<br />
Please, pass the message to the<br />
militants that one Nigeria is<br />
not negotiable. And I pray<br />
they better accept it. The<br />
constitution is very clear as to<br />
what they should get and I<br />
assure them that there would<br />
be justice”.<br />
His mien, July 6, was<br />
different from his tone 12<br />
days earlier, June 24, at<br />
a dinner with<br />
leaders and<br />
chieftains of the<br />
All<br />
Progressives<br />
Congress,<br />
APC, at the<br />
Presidential<br />
Villa,<br />
where<br />
he<br />
pleaded<br />
•President<br />
Buhari<br />
with the Niger Delta militants in the name<br />
of God to reconsider their destruction of oil<br />
and gas installations.<br />
Dashed hope<br />
The NDA and other militant groups were<br />
said to have waited patiently for the<br />
President, who just returned to the country<br />
from his medical trip in London, to point<br />
the way forward <strong>two</strong> days after the<br />
expiration of the <strong>two</strong>-<strong>week</strong> ceasefire<br />
declared by government, June 6.<br />
Nevertheless, he remained taciturn.<br />
The expectation of many was that Buhari<br />
would make definite declarations on the<br />
peace talks, given that the Minister of<br />
State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwku,<br />
who undertook a preliminary tour of the<br />
region and met with some stakeholders to<br />
prepare grounds for the jaw-jaw, would<br />
have briefed him on his trouble-shooting<br />
mission.<br />
However, the President chose to remain<br />
silent on the critical matter. The NDA,<br />
during the period, urged him to call a<br />
referendum for Nigerians to decide if they<br />
would continue to stay together, just like<br />
his counterpart in Britain, David Cameron,<br />
did.<br />
Unsolicited invitation<br />
It also invited him to the Niger<br />
Delta to see things for himself.<br />
According to the group’s<br />
spokesperson, Mudoch<br />
Agbinibo: “The Nigeria<br />
President Buhari should<br />
visit Ugborodo, host to<br />
Chevron crude oil export<br />
terminal/EGTL gas plant,<br />
Ogulagha, host to Shell<br />
Forcados crude oil export<br />
terminal/tank farm and<br />
Bonny Island, host to Shell<br />
Bonny crude oil export<br />
terminal/NLNG gas<br />
terminal…”<br />
Agbinibo went on:<br />
“He (Buhari) should<br />
also visit Brass, host<br />
to Agip/ENI export<br />
Continues on<br />
page 10