More trouble for Clark-led PANDEF as police disrupts meeting, 1 day after rejection by RNDA

Things are becoming more complicated for the Chief Edwin Clark-led Pan Niger Delta Forum as less than 24 hours after a coalition of militants insisted on the rejection of the group, police stormed a hotel venue for its fourth quarter general meeting and prevented it from holding.

Operatives of the Nigerian Police Force was said to have carried out the act on Thursday at Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where the Clark-led PANDEF was scheduled to hold the meeting.

Heavily armed policemen, it was learnt, blockaded the entrance to the venue and stopped visitors from accessing the hotel.

Confirming the report, Dr. Osasu Ekpen Isibor, National Rep, Host Communities of Nigeria Producing oil and gas (HOSTCOM), told newsmen, “We all came to Hotel Presidential this morning for the meeting only to see everywhere taken over by the police.

“This is not proper. We do not know what may have led to this development. The police officer told us to go that the meeting has been cancelled.”

This is coming on the heels of renewed threat to the relative calm in the Niger Delta, as just a day earlier, the Reformed Niger Delta Avengers (RNDA), and coalition of nine other militant groups, have vowed to resume hostility in the oil region should the Federal Government continue talks with Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) on behalf of the people of the region.

READ ALSO: Sustained peace in N’Delta elusive as RNDA insists Nigerian govt must end talks with PANDEF

The group had in a statement released by the leader of the coalition of militant groups, self-titled ‘Major General’ Johnmark Ezonbi, insisted that it had rejected PANDEF, adding that the Clark-led group no longer enjoyed support of stakeholders in the region and must not continue to speak for them.

According to them, all negotiation for the region should be with Pan Niger Delta People’s Congress (PNDPC).

It was not clear however if the police action was connected to the rejection of PANDEF by some groups of militants and stakeholders in the region.

 

 

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