OKAH: MEND THREATENS TO RESUME HOSTILITIES OVER CONVICTION OF THEIR LEADER

A faction of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), loyal to Mr. Henry Okah, has threatened renewed attacks in the country for the conviction of Okah by a South African Court for the October 1, 2010 bombing in Abuja. MEND in a statement titled “Conviction of our leader, Mr. Henry Okah,” signed by one Comrade Azizi, said the organisation would target multinational oil firms and South African firms operating in the country and that the attacks will not be restricted to Niger Delta but the entire country.

In the statement, they also placed a ban on the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Godsday Orubebe, from visiting the Niger Delta.The group which said it is now more sophisticated and deadlier, threatened to carry out attacks on government officials who served from 1999 to date and members of their families as a retaliatory measure against the military invasion of Odi in November 1999.

As if the issue of Boko Haram and kidnapping is not enough to deal with, now MEND too? Hmm, we need the intervention of God to save this nation from collapse. Read Azizi's statement after the cut...

 “We witnessed the conviction of our dear leader on January 21, 2013 by the South African Supreme Court on all the 13 counts which as we all know has to do with Aso Rock politics because he refused to be bought over.

“To the Nigerian military (The Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta), don’t bother placing officers on the alert, we will neither bomb nor kill anybody for the time being, as we had communicated months back that we no long require IED or car bombs as we’ve gone past that stage.

“Nigerians as a whole will feel our presence when we finally decide to carry out our targets which will not be restricted to the Niger Delta Region alone. “We are not on the same program with regional agitators in the North or elsewhere. We will not hide our faces, soon and very soon, Nigerians will get to see the structures (diaspora and home) as well as our new states, regional commanders and new national leader. Arresting and killing Henry Okah will change nothing.

“To the Nigerian government, you have seen nothing, the disintegration of Nigeria will start through us and by us. We are well equipped for this task. We have details of all the family members of the government (1999-2013) and our diaspora command will take care of that aspect. We will get to them, we will skin them and post their remains to your door steps as compensation to the Odi people, except our resources are handed over to us without conditions.

 “The Minister of the Niger Delta Ministry, Mr. Orubebe Peter Godsday, is hereby banished from Delta State and the region at large. “All oil companies, (foreign or local) should start parking up from the region as this might be the last warning; we really will not want civilians to be caught in between so please take this warning seriously.

 “And finally to the South Africa companies: we made some promises before and now we are repeating same, leave Nigeria totally. There will be massive and aggressive campaign on all companies owned, operated and affiliated to the South African citizens or their government both in Nigeria, Western and Southern Africa respectively.”