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THE militant group, Niger Delta Aven-gers, NDA, which halted attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta region, last year, following the appeal of the Niger Delta elders and leaders, renounced the ceasefire, yesterday. Strangely, the group in a statement by the spokesperson, self-styled “Maj-General Murdoch Agbinibo, disowned the Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, led by the former Federal Commissioner for Information, Chief Edwin Clark, ex-militant leader, Chief Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, and the Reformed Niger Delta Avengers, RNDA. It said its suspended Operation Red Economy would resume in the next few days, warning, “our next line of operation will not be like the 2016 campaign, which we operated successfully without any casualties.
This outing will be brutish, brutal and bloody, as we shall crush everything we meet on our path to completely put off the fires that burn to flair gas in our communities and cut every pipe that moves crude away from our region.” Contacted on the termination of ceasefire and giving up on PANDEF, yesterday, the national leader, Chief Edwin Clark, said he was just hearing the information from Saturday Vanguard and would, therefore, require sometime to appraise the statement before making comments. Another PANDEF leader, HRH Anabs Sara-Igbe, who volunteered comments, said, “PANDEF does not stand for violence, we stand for peace and dialogue and appeal to youths of the region to allow peace reign.” He said the federal government should hold the rival group, which had shown penchant for violence for any disturbance in the region.
A source informed Saturday Vanguard that militant leaders held a meeting on Friday night, to deliberate and narrow their areas of disagreement, but as it seems, they failed to harmonize their positions. We warned PANDEF NDA stated: “To the elders of the Niger Delta, PANDEF, we warned you against the antics of the Nigerian government, yet you requested a chance to broker a new vision for our people. We told you and the rest of the world that the Nigerian government is only interested in our oil wells and not our well being, yet you told us the signs are different this time around.” “Instead of allowing us to continue our quest to bring the Nigerian economy to our targeted zero -daily production, which recorded huge success; you threatened us with Tompolo to stop the struggle. Out of respect for elders and not to the threat of Tompolo, we adhered to the call and halted our strike actions hoping that you (PANDEF) would keep your own side of the bargain.
“The question to Tompolo and the PANDEF is to tell us what progress they achieved since we heeded your retrogressive call, to whose benefit is the move by Tompolo and the Niger Delta elders to impede a mission sanctioned by our ancestors and the Almighty?” the militant group asked. Dares Tompolo It added, “Tompolo, we want you to know that we never started this struggle with the intent of living forever but with our lives already offered for a sacrifice for a better Niger Delta. We invite you to come after us with your total force as we are no longer ready to heed uninspiring advice from you or anyone else in the Niger Delta region.” NDA asserted: “We have since lost faith in you, Tompolo and PANDEF and have vowed never to heed any such retrogressive call or advice from you in the future.” “The recent disruption of the PANDEF’s fourth general assembly by the Nigerian government is the final evidence we needed to conclude that the Federal Government of Nigeria reserves not even an iota of respect for you (Tompolo) and the Niger Delta elders.
“As the position of the Nigerian government is emphatically made known to the Niger Delta people that its only interest remains the flow of oil from our region to the Central Bank of Nigeria, we want to make it known to the PANDEF and the Nigeria government that our call for halt on “Operation Red Economy” is officially over,” the group said. NDA further said, “Some of us can still remember those good old days in Camp 5 when you (Tompolo) were the general of generals. You told us (the young combatants) then, that ‘we are the future of the total emancipation of the Niger Delta, and that we should also know we are not fighting for ourselves, rather we are fighting for the next generation.’
“ “Sometimes we wonder where that charismatic general of generals has gone to? We bet, only you can answer that question. We still believe in you, but we are sorry, as you said 10 years ago ‘we are the future of the total emancipation of our people’; and we have since chosen this path and will never back out until the total emancipation of our people is achieved. “We have just concluded head count of our operatives across the country; we are pleased to announce that all our operatives are intact and focused; ready to implement instructions from the high command of the NDA in the next few days,” the group said
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