The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has sent out a new e mail denying any involvement in the killing of one expatriate and the kidnapping two others in last wekk's attack on Saipem base Port Harcourt:
Information reaching MEND indicates that the Saipem attack of thursday, september 27 2007 was carried out by some renegade soldiers of the Nigerian military in collaboration with some criminal gangs who wanted to exploit our statement of last week Sunday declaring an end to the cease fire in order to kidnap for ransom. MEND sympathises with the family of the Colombian who was killed during the attack.
Two weeks ago, in an unrelated incident, some soldiers attached to the joint task force were secretly executed in Port Harcourt by the Nigerian army. The men who are citizens of southern Nigeria were accused of being spies sympathetic to militants in the vanguard of the emancipation struggle.
This extra-judicial killing by the military is another indication of its frustration in the fight against justice in the Niger Delta and the absence of the rule of law. Foreigners are now labelled and arrested as spies just because they want to expose the truth to the outside world.Recently two Germans and an American were arrested for “spying”.
Soldiers of the Nigerian army are no longer psychologically motivated and commited. It is a generally known fact that this bunch of spineless soldiers commit atrocities such as extortion, rape, harassment and intimidation of hapless civilians in the Niger Delta. We have said it time without number that entrusting the security of the Niger Delta to the rapacious Nigerian military and their political controllers will only bring more pain to the people of the region.
Oil companies entrusting their security on the Nigerian government while turning a blind eye to the injustice in the niger Delta will surely continue to witness monumental disapointments.
Jomo Gbomo
A telling indictment of the lack of commitment to solve the problems in the Delta (and indeed blame them on others) by an incompetent military and a bunch of armed thugs masquerading as politicians. Luckily the two Germans who were accused of spying whilst gathering material for a documentary have now been released.