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Militants divided, disagree over Dasuki, Kanu

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The rank of the Niger Delta militants has been split over the demands to make from the federal government ahead of planned negotiation talks.

One of the groups, the Reformed Egbesu Boys of Niger Delta, which has heeded the call to seize fire has however disagreed with the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force, JNDLF on the release of leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, and former National Security Adviser, NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd), and other conditions.

Other groups of militants are also angry that some powerful forces have hijacked the struggle to the detriment of the region and were merely using them as bargaining tool.

This is even as plans are at advanced stage to bring the militants face to face with a government team in furtherance of negotiations.

It was gathered that traditional rulers from the Niger Delta, under the aegis of the South-South Monarchs Forum, have scheduled a meeting in Uyo sometime next week to discuss ways of finding solutions to the renewed militancy in the region and bombing of oil facilities.

And in preparation for talks, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, has reportedly raised a seven-man provisional team, tagged Aaron Team 2, to negotiate with the Federal Government just as it charged the Niger Delta Avengers to drop its defiant posture and embrace dialogue.

Read also: Another militant group demands reclamation of Bakassi

There are also reports that the Reformed Egbesu Boys are at loggerheads with the NDA and JNDLF over their positions.

This much was deduced from a statement by the group signed by General Tony Alagbakeriowei and Commander Ebi Abakoromor, in which they warned those described as old generation of Ijaw activists, namely Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, Ateke Tom, General Boyloaf, General Africanus Ukpaparasia and others, “not to meddle in this ongoing process.”

The statement read in part, “We are in total support of the Federal Government option of dialogue, taking into cognizance the numerous appeals from both local and international platforms. In as much as we have considered this option, we wish to reaffirm that the Ijaws have never been a conquered people.

“The Reformed Egbesu Boys of Niger Delta wishes to state that we are not comfortable with some aspects of the demands contained in the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Forces as published in the mass media by the Avengers.

It continued that “The Niger Delta agitation is not about persons as portrayed in the said publication. The Ijaw agitation has always been issues of resource control and true federalism and inequality where our farmlands have been divided into oil blocks among Nigerians to the exclusion of the Ijaws.

“Therefore, the legitimate agitation of the Ijaw ethnic nationality has nothing to do with Sambo Dasuki and Nnamdi Kanu, though we sympathize with them.”

 

 

 

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