Nigeria: Politicians Behind Recent Violence

Calabar — Ex-militants undergoing non-violence transformational training at the Obubra Post Amnesty Camp in Cross River State have disassociated themselves from recent spate of attacks in the Niger Delta by MEND and few other groups.

Speaking to journalists at the camp in Obubra as Batch 9 of the ex-militants resumed training, the ex-militants said top politicians in the Niger Delta region are responsible for the spate of violence to achieve their selfish goals.

According to the ex-militants, "What is going on is criminality and top politicians and political office holders are behind it because they have been talking to some of us.

"Before we arrived here early last week to start this training, the government of Bayelsa State through some agents approached some boys selling the idea of recruiting us to fight for them in the coming 2011 election. But since we embraced amnesty we cannot go back to be hunted like animals by soldiers"

George Silva, an ex-militant from Ogunboss Camp, Bayelsa State said he has leant to make peace in his community and to have respect for constituted authority.

According to him, "It is not everybody that is saying, I am a militant that is a militant. Militancy is not criminality. Some people are criminals and tagging themselves militants. I cannot see any reason why you say you are fighting for a cause and at the same time, they say you should drop arms and get what you want and you say no; and you keep on doing those things you are not supposed to do. What are you fighting for? What is the freedom about? Those are criminals".

"Anybody that would allow himself be used by a politician for anything to cause trouble here or outside, I see that person as a foolish person. You have been rehabilitated. You have what it takes. If a politician can wear a Marks and Spencers shirt, you too with the help of this thing can wear it so what is the use of a politician asking you to use your shirt to fight. Why not him using his own. So I don't see any means that someone will use to convince you to go and fight for him when you also have money. We are also big men by the grace of God".

He said some politicians are bent on seeing that the Post-Amnesty programme does not succeed so that they would have people they would use to advance their selfish interests.

Another ex-militant, Tony Patrick from Boyloaf group in Delta State, who said he was a storekeeper of arms, also said "I love the programme. I have learnt a lot. I will tell any politician who comes to me now to go away. I am free. My advice is that according to what information given to us is that if you go back to your bad acts, you will be killed. That is the law. So advise other boys to stay calm and achieve what they came for.

"No boy that has passed through here will go out and do anything bad. I cannot go back to my old life. I can never be violent anymore. Let the politicians go and use their children. We are not doing anything for them again. Everything is going smoothly inside the camp here".

24-years old Innocent Ayakwo Okoro from River State said he was combatant soldier in the Camp but that since the amnesty programme, "I have had free movement in town. I can express my freedom of expression and my rights and I commend the programme so much.

"As I leave here, I am going to teach other people what I have e learnt from here which is non-violence. With what I have learnt here, there would be no violence. Through this process that the Federal Government has started with the youth of the Niger Delta, I think there would be no violence anymore in Nigeria, not even Niger Delta. Because when at least 1000 people pass through this training, at least one person can reach out to 1000 and the chain effect goes on like that then the rate of crime would be less in this country not only in the Niger Delta".

rmed men launch another attack in Bayelsa ...AC threatens to call for state of emergency

The spate of attacks in Bayelsa State continued on Tuesday with an attack on the country home of a political associate of President Goodluck Jonathan and Chairman, Board of the Federal Inland Waterways, HRH Jonny Amatele Turner.
Unlike the attacks that have been witnessed in the state, the five gunmen were said to have stormed Opume in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State in two Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and headed straight for the house of Turner.

The gunmen were said to have gained entry into the house through the adjoining fence of Community Comprehensive School and caught the security men on duty unawares.

According to one Benjamin Einighe who identified himself as the chief security officer (CSO) of the building, the armed men dispossessed the two policemen on duty of their rifles before tying them up with ropes.
He said they demanded to know where Turner was in the building and where he kept his money, adding that after they explained that he was in Abuja they left them to ransack the building.
“We told them that Oga is in Abuja and that there is no money in the building. They proceeded to search the whole building and left with some things but we didn’t know what.”

A tour around the building revealed that some of the bedrooms were thoroughly ransacked with items and electronics turned upside down.
Turner who spoke on phone from Abuja said he had already reported to the State Commissioner of Police, Elder Onuoha Udeka.
He explained that he was at a loss why some people would want to attack his house and destroy it.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Eguavoen Omokpae, said the police had been informed about the incident but that details were still sketchy.
However, the Action Congress (AC) has raised alarm that Bayelsa State was gradually heading towards a state of emergency if the attacks on homes of political officer holders were not checked.

The state Chairman of AC, Miriki Ebikibina in a statement issued in Yenagoa said the recent attacks in the state which had left about 12 people dead was not only “terrifying, shocking, barbaric but also “unacceptable.”
According to him, the reign of terror in the state was pathetic and should not be condoned by a responsible government because it was affecting the lives and property of the people.

He said if the attacks continued, the AC would be forced to demand for a state of emergency since security agents had failed to live up to their responsibility.
The statement reads in part: “The show of failure by the Nigerian Police and the State Security Service to protect the lives and properties of innocent citizens with the non-arrest of the ravaging scourge that snowballed into a serious security threat to the existing peace in the state has become unbearable and a monumental embarrassment to the president.”