Date Published: 07/16/09
UNDEDSS welcomes Henry Okah & placates Lagosians
The United Niger Delta Energy Development Security Strategy (UNDEDSS), the aggregation of Niger Delta ethnic nationalities and civil society, heartily welcomed Engineer Henry Okah’s release, following his seventeen months incarceration by the Yar’Adua administration, and commended the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) for, once again, declaring a unilateral ceasefire.
“It is heartening to see Henry Okah free and alive after being denied his constitutional rights to fair trial by this administration”, declared Professor Pat Utomi, the UNDEDSS President at a Press Briefing following UNDEDSS’ 5 th Extraordinary General Session in Victoria Island, Lagos, on Wednesday, July 15.
The erudite professor and acclaimed leader of Nigeria’s beleaguered Niger Delta went on to state that “the fact that we are witnesses to Henry’s freedom today, only goes to strengthen our belief that, sooner than later, justice and emancipation will be the portion of all the peoples of the Niger Delta. They killed Adaka Boro and Saro-Wiwa but could not stem the peoples’ just struggle. Now they have failed to keep Asari Dokubo and Henry Okah buried alive. Just as the mills of God grind slow but sure, so will the rights and tears of the Niger Delta prevail. The struggle for justice is unstoppable.”
Also speaking at the briefing, Mr. Tony I. Uranta, the UNDEDSS Secretary-General, commended MEND on its proclaimed 60-days unilateral ceasefire and preparedness to talk peace. He emphasized that “if the government of President Yar’Adua wants to prove to Nigerians and the world that there is no hidden agenda of the nation’s armed forces in the Niger Delta, the Federal Government of Nigeria should begin immediate implementation of MEND’s precondition-for-negotiations that the JTF withdraws from occupied communities and the government drives resettlement of the peoples of Gbaramatu Kingdom in their homes”
Uranta went on to apologise to Governor Fashola and the entire peoples of Lagos State for the perceived affront by MEND who attacked the Atlas Cove Jetty in Lagos, saying “the peoples of the Niger Delta have no reason to create any rifts between themselves and the good peoples of Lagos State who have been good hosts to all Nigerians including Niger Deltans.”
Mr. Uranta reminded Lagosians “that they have never been assaulted or mistreated in the Niger Delta where hundreds of Lagos indigenes live, work and inter-marry at peace with Niger Deltans”, and that “the unusual and unfortunate incident at Atlas Cove was, according to UNDEDSS investigations, MEND’s way of reminding Nigeria that its war against the oil economy could not, logically, be restricted solely to the Niger Delta. However, subsequent to the misperceptions of the Atlas Cove attack, MEND had given UNDEDSS its word, even before the ceasefire declaration, that it would not attack any Lagos installation in future”.
TONY I. URANTA
UNDEDSS Secretary-General
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
