The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, has confirmed that it is indeed talking with the Federal Government of Nigeria as stated by President Muhammadu Buhari and that the Niger Delta Avengers, NDA is not part of the dialogue.
President Buhari had while bidding farewell to the outgoing German Ambassador to Nigeria, Michael Zinner, last week, said his administration was talking to Niger Delta militants through oil companies and law-enforcement agencies to find a lasting solution to insecurity in the region.
He also said the government was studying the instruments of the amnesty programme inherited from the previous administration with a view to carrying out commitments made that were undelivered.
“We understand their feelings,” the president said. “We are studying the instruments. We have to secure the environment; otherwise investment will not come. We will do our best for the country,” President Buhari said.
On Thursday, the office of President Muhammadu Buhari said the government was using oil firms and security agencies to talk to the militants “to find a lasting solution to insecurity in the region”.
MEND is a major former militant group which signed in 2009 an amnesty in exchange for cash and job training brokered by the previous government. It said the Niger Delta Avengers, a militant group that has claimed responsibility for a series of recent attacks, would not be part of the dialogue.
“The Federal Government made it clear during our meetings that a negotiation with criminals is out of the question,” MEND said. “The Niger Delta Avengers…fall under this category.”
The Niger Delta Avengers group had on Thursday said it was not aware of any talks with the government.
Militants say they want a greater share of Nigeria’s oil wealth to go to the impoverished Delta region. In a statement on Sunday, MEND’s spokesperson, Gbomo Jomo, said the group was having what it described as “preliminary” talks with the government through oil companies and law-enforcement agencies.
“The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) wishes to confirm that indeed it has been in preliminary talks with the Federal Government through oil companies and law-enforcement agencies as revealed by President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, July 21, 2016,” MEND said.
“These preliminary talks are the precursor to a wider dialogue between the Federal Government and the MEND Aaron 2 peace initiative which will seek to find solutions to the short, medium and long-term future of the Niger Delta region.”
During the preliminary talks, the group said the government made it clear that it would not negotiate with criminals. It listed groups and persons the government reportedly said it would not negotiate with to include Niger Delta Avengers, internet-based ‘militant’ groups such as Joint Revolutionary Council and the Ultimate Warriors.
Others are those it called opportunistic tribal assemblies, who it claimed were compromised to keep silent during the six years of the Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, pirates, pipeline vandals, oil thieves, commercial kidnappers, waterway robbers, political thugs and miscreants.
