Date Published: 10/22/10

Jonathan Campaign Group warns MEND to steer clear for Yorubaland

Presidential Campaign Committee of the Goodluck/Sambo presidential ambition, Southwest chapter has warned the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) over threat of bomb explosion in President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign rallies, saying; “The group should in its own interest steer clear of the southwest.”

Spokesperson of the Campaign Organisation, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, in a release made available to journalists today, said MEND should not take its campaign of terror to any part of the Yorubaland.

Adeyeye, a former Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, a Yoruba Socio-Cultural group, who described the MEND’s threat as a shame to the people of Niger Delta, whose interest it claims to represent, said; “The group and its sponsors have shown that they hates Nigeria and its people and they must be treated as enemies of the country.”

“We in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Southwest of Nigeria have declared our total support for the presidential ambition of President Jonathan and there is no going back on that.

“We are also not unmindful of the threat from MEND that people should be mindful of attending President Jonathan’s campaign rallies and we wish to warn that MEND should steer clear of Yoruba soil because we shall resist any attempt to use our people to settle devilish political scores.

“If in truth, MEND is a Niger Delta organisation and it is the one behind the October 1, 2010 bomb blast and threats of bomb explosion in the country, then the organisation and its sponsors should be ashamed of themselves.

“They should be ashamed that one of their own is the president of Nigeria for the first time in the history of the country and instead of supporting him, they are allowing themselves to be used to cause chaos and panic in the country.

“Today, Adaka Boro, the father of Niger Delta struggle will be sad in his grave that now that one of the reasons that he died has been realised, his own people are the ones being used to prevent a Niger Delta man from being elected as president of Nigeria.

“But even if the Niger Delta bad eggs in MEND have decided to sell their birth rights for a pot of porridge, we in the Southwest will not allow our land to be used for the execution of their sinister plot and we wish to state that the group should not dare us.”