Date Published: 10/16/09

We're set for fresh oil war, says MEND

SOME aggrieved insurgents in the Niger Delta, Nigeria's troubled oil and gas region, say they are ready to rupture the relative peace in the area with effect from 12 midnight on Friday, October 16, 2009.

There has been some three months of calm in the creeks of the oil region following President Umaru Yar'Adua's Amnesty deal for repentant insurgents. Most of the frontline commanders of the dreaded Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) like Boyloaf, Tompolo, Ateke Tom, and Farah Dagogo, have since embraced the amnesty.

Both Governor Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa State, and Boyloaf, have declared MEND as an ''empty shell''.

But MEND Spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, in an on-line statement on Friday said they are starting a new waqve of oil war in the volatile region. According to him, ''MEND resumes its hostilities against the Nigerian oil industry, the Nigerian armed forces and its collaborators with effect from 00:00Hrs, Friday, October 16, 2009''.