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| Edwin Clark |
The Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate (NDGJM), the insurgent group, which has claimed responsibility for attacks on oil and gas assets in the upland areas of the oil-rich region, has denounced the recently convened Niger Delta stakeholders’ by Ijaw national leader, Chief Edwin Clark, saying the meeting was a selfish project.
The group, in a statement electronically circulated to the media Monday by its spokesman, Aldo Agbalaja, also said it would not observe the resolutions of the last Friday meeting, which was attended by some dignitaries, including the Delta state governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, warning the federal government to be wary of the Ijaw leader, whom it accused of being part of the last administration, which shortchanged the people of the region.
According to the statement, the call for cessation of hostilities, which had since been accepted by another insurgent group; the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), was just a smokescreen, aimed at collecting money from government and to create the impression that the people who attended the meeting were indeed the true representatives of all the people of the region.
NDGJM, which emphatically stated that it was not going to respect the call by the Clark-led stakeholders, however said it might consider sheathing its sword if the federal government would seek out the true stakeholders of the region, which it said should come from the six core Niger Delta states.
It added that a group of stakeholders; the Niger Delta Contact Group, led by the first military administration of the Old Rivers state, King Alfred Diete-Spiff, currently in talks with government, could help with reaching out to genuine leaders of the region.
“He (Chief Edwin Clark) does not have the mandate to convene a meeting or speak on behalf of the Niger Delta, the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate is not in support of that so-called stakeholders’ meeting, which by the way was populated by the same gang of breast-pocket politicians who in the six to seven years of Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency, ruled with him, looted the nation and raped the Niger Delta. We see that meeting in Warri on Friday last week as an attempt by this same gang, led by Clark, to creep back into national relevance and continue with the looting spree that supposedly ended with Jonathan’s regime.
“We are neither moved by the stage-playing in name of the call for ceasefire by the Warri gang last Friday, nor by the acting up that followed in the supposed ceasefire declaration by the Niger Delta Avengers, as a matter of fact, the people who called for truce were the same set of people who put the Avengers together in the first place, therefore the hypocrisy of these people is becoming glaring to the world by the day.
“We also know that the charade called ceasefire is in the bid to collect more money from both the federal government and oil companies, to be shared between the founders and the boys of the Avengers. We hereby serve a notice that the so called truce called by E.K Clark and co is not recognised by the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate as we do not see Clark as the leader of all Niger Delta, but of only the Ijaw nation.
“We are serving a notice that the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate is still carrying on with this campaign against Nigeria’s oil and gas interest until the federal government does right by our people. Like we said in our previous message, only a credibly convened conference of Niger Delta stakeholders, made up of real, grass-rooted representatives from the six core Niger Delta states, not breast-pocket rogues, who are merely looking for more avenues to sleaze and looting, can dialogue on behalf of the region and get a real deal out for our people, and those are the kind of representatives that the Niger Delta people can trust with their mandate.
“Therefore, President Buhari should take note, stop wasting your time with these people, they are not serving the interest of the Niger Delta and they cannot stop the current campaign. They can only withdraw their boys, the Avengers, from action, but not the genuine campaigners for a better Niger Delta.
“We are also aware that there is a group (NDDCG), led by the Amanyanabo of Twon Brass, Alfred Diete-Spiff, which has the involvement of some international agencies, we would rather the federal government builds on this group to reach out to the genuine representatives of the peoples of the region, across the six states, to discuss the way forward because we believe what is worth doing at all is worth doing well. Build on this group and reach out to our people, not on an Edwin Clark group, which had connived with Jonathan in the past to subject this region, including the majority of our Ijaw brothers, to one of the most untold humiliations by leaving the region they claimed to be representing worse than it was under previous administrations. Enough of these buccaneers in the name of leaders of the region, our people from both the upland and the creeks deserve a better deal, not the Avengers kind of deal,’’ the group said.
