Date Published: 11/01/09

Niger Delta: Ijaw Group accuses Yar'Adua, alleges military action

AN Ijaw group, Ijaw Foundation, has accused President Umaru Yar'Adua of pursuing a hidden agenda on the Niger Delta conflict.

The group in a statement to our correspondent on Saturday said, ''Nigerian government is aggressively sourcing weapons and military training from several countries to further its genocidal war against the Ijaws and the peoples of the Niger Delta''.

President of the group, Dr. Ebipamene Nanakumo, and Secretary, Lincoln Snithers who signed the statement added, ''instead of engaging the Ijaws in dialogue to peacefully resolve the conflict, the Nigerian state has entered into alliance with foreign countries and foreign interests against the hapless Ijaw people. Instead of protecting the Ijaws as its own citizens, Nigeria is treating the Ijaws as foreigners, colonial subjects and enemies. Nigeria is determined to exterminate us''

According to them, ''the Niger Delta conflict is a political conflict, and it demands a political solution rather than a military one.It cannot be over-emphasized that the only just and effective solution to the Niger Delta crisis is the granting of political autonomy to the Niger Delta people to enable them have control and responsibility for the exploitation of their natural resources, including oil and gas, as well as the protection of the Niger Delta habitat on which they depend for their survival''.

''To this end'', they went on, ''we call for the immediate convocation of aSovereign National Conference to restructure Nigeria to give political autonomy to every ethnic nationality with a view to enthroning True Federalism; whereby the geopolitical units of the country control and manage their respective natural resources.The Sovereign National Conference must provide for Referendum on Political Autonomy for each ethnic nationality to make its own sovereign decision''.

  Continuing, they claimed, ''in an article published by Niger Delta Rising on September 12, 2009, Daniel Volman, the Director of the African Security Research Project in Washington, DC, reports that “t here is mounting evidence that the government of Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua is set to launch a full-scale offensive in the Niger Delta when a ceasefire declared by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) ends on 15 Sep 2009.

''And this time, Nigerian military forces will be using special warships, helicopter gunships and troop transports, and unmanned drone intelligence planes and ships sold to Nigeria by Israeli, Malaysian, Singaporean, Dutch, and Russian companies. Israeli and Russian instructors have been providing specialized training to Nigerian Navy and Air Forces sailors and pilots in how to operate the ships and helicopters over the past few months, and some of these instructors may help operate them during the offensive.”

The writer allegedly also reveals that “the Nigerian government has recently been buying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of sophisticated weaponry and military hardware in preparation for a new offensive in the Niger Delta. These include deals worth $25 million for two 24.8-meter Shaldag MK-20 patrol boats (generally armed with artillery guns and machine guns) from the Israeli firm, Israel Shipyards—one has already been delivered and the other is on its way—and another deal involves air and sea drones from Aeronautica Ventures, another Israeli company. 80 Nigerian sailors are presently being trained in counter-insurgency operations at the northern Israeli port of Haifa.

''Nigeria recently bought a surveillance system for the Delta that uses Aerostar unmanned drones and Seastar vessels produced by Israel’s Aeronautics Defense

''Systems/Aeronautics Ventures. Nigeria acquired 20 troop-carrying catamarans from the Dutch firm, TP Marine, to transport soldiers up the creeks and small rivers of the Delta region. And the Nigerian Navy recently took delivery of two 38-meter Manta-class patrol boats built by the Nautica Nova Shipbuilding yard in Malaysia. These ships were officially commissioned on 12 April 2009. Another four 17-meter Manta-class patrol boats have also been delivered to Nigeria from Singapore Technologies Marine. The Nigerian Navy also recently procured 35 new machine-gun equipped fast patrol boats in a deal that was paid for by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, reportedly on the instructions of President Yar’Adua.”

According to the Ijaw group, ''we hereby recall with extreme sadness and pain that, in May 2009, the Gbaramatu Kingdom of the Ijaw Nation was visited with heinous genocide by the Nigerian military forces of occupation in the Niger Delta, the Joint Task Force (JTF): Operation Restore Hope, whereby thousands of our unarmed, non-combatant and defenseless people [mainly women, children, the elderly and the infirmed] were brutally murdered or maimed, and the towns and villages were viciously decimated and ferociously razed, by aerial bombardments, grenade attacks, and artillery attacks from fighter jets, warships and naval gunboats.

''It is ironical and unacceptable that the fighter jets, warships, naval gunboats, grenades, artillery and bombs that have been unleashed on our hapless Ijaw people are bought with the Ijaw oil money!It is unacceptable that our God-given wealth is being used to exterminate us!!''

The foundation, they said , is a platform for collective action by all Ijaws and all Ijaw organizations in the Diaspora and the Ijaw homeland, hereby avers that armistice and justiceare absolute prerequisites for peace in the Niger Delta. Peace in the Niger Delta will be a mirage until the ruthless oppression of the Ijaws is fully and effectively remediated. Peace in the Niger Delta will remain an illusion as long as the occupational and genocidal military forces of the Nigerian state, JTF remains in Ijawland.

''It is highly hypocritical and offensive for the Nigerian State to talk of peace when it is aggressively procuring weapons to annihilate the Ijaws and consolidating the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta by relocating it from Warri to Yenagoa in the heart of the Niger Delta. It goes without saying that the total withdrawal and disbandment of the JTF is an important prerequisite for disarmament and peace in the Niger Delta'', they said.

 In the mean time, they are calling on President Yar’Adua and the Nigerian state to work for, and create, genuine peace in the Niger Delta by implementing Armistice and Justice for the Niger Delta.

''We urge President Yar’Adua and the Nigerian State to begin the process immediately by implementing the recommendations of the Technical Committee on the Niger Delta'', they added.