The Reformed Niger Delta Avengers (RNDA), a group of ex-militants, has condemned the threat by the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) to resume attacks on oil facilities and bomb pipelines across the Niger Delta if President Muhammadu Buhari is reelected.
The ex-militant leaders alleged that the threat by the Niger Delta Avengers is sponsored by an unnamed ex-militant leader from Delta State “in order to cover his sins as outlined against him by the Federal Government”.
The RNDA, led by Major General John Mark Ezonebi, a.k.a. Obama, after a crucial meeting with all unit commanders from across the Niger Delta region in the creeks of Delta State at Benin River to appraise burning national issues, including the purported endorsement of Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), urged President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration to disregard the purported threat made by the NDA.
According to the group, the threat by NDA is a show of cowardice.
The statement read: “It is now clear to the world, Nigerians and the people of the Niger Delta region that the NDA is being sponsored by some corrupt elements of the failed PDP who looted the nation’s treasury dry and it is obvious to us that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who is the presidential candidate of the ‘Peoples Demonizing Party’ is one of the sponsors of the activities of the moribund NDA in the creeks following their endorsement of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
“To this end, the RNDA has warned the so-called self-acclaimed high command of the NDA, who is a fugitive ex-militant leader that is hiding in the creeks of Delta State, and its scanty members of the moribund NDA group to desist from their proposed threat claiming that if President Muhammadu Buhari wins the upcoming presidential election, they will resume attacks on oil facilities and bombing of pipelines in the creeks.
“The Reformed Niger Delta Avengers with the coalition of nine militant groups are ever ready to lead the security agencies to smoke them out from their hiding places in the creeks, and we are going to bring down any community or kingdom that any attack on oil facilities and bombing of pipelines takes place in any part of the Niger Delta, and will expose alongside their sponsors and co-travellers in their ill-fated journey. It is sad and very obvious that the aims and objectives of the moribund NDA group has derailed from the genuine agitation of the people of the region and it is now purely for selfish interest. They are just using the name of the Niger Delta struggle to enrich family members and their kingdom affairs alone upon the detriment of the long-neglected emancipated people of the region in the creeks.
“RNDA wants to warn that enough is enough. The people of the region in the creeks can no longer be fooled under the guise of Niger Delta development, as the agitation in the creeks goes beyond Ijaw tribal agenda alone. It goes beyond Gbaramatu kingdom affairs and is neither a one-man show nor a family business venture affairs alone.
“The RNDA, however, wants to inform the long neglected people of the region, most especially those that are suffering in the creeks of the Niger Delta, that we cannot be fooled into another wasted years of misrule of our God-given natural resources again to be looted away in the hands of a corrupt political party like the PDP and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, programmed calculated political antics called ‘restructuring’, which is the latest political slogan of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar full of deceit and full of lies.
“We have to make it clear that the PDP and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, are the enemies to the long neglected emancipated people of the Niger Delta region. RNDA wants to ask: ‘Who allocated the oil bloc licence owned by Intels in the creeks of the Niger Delta?’ And it is also on record that it was under the former President Obasanjo and Atiku-led PDP administration that most of our communities in the creeks were razed and bombarded by military heavy weapons, like Odi Community, Zakibiam and most of the communities in Gbaramatu kingdom in 2009, under former president Yar’Adua of blessed memory and Goodluck Jonathan era. So, there is no gainsaying that it is the PDP and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, are the worst enemies of the people of the Niger Delta. It is the most corrupt political party in the world and has a way of deceiving the people of the region and Nigerians at large.
“What we at RNDA are agitating for is to remove the 13% derivation monies from the hands of the wicked, greedy inhuman Niger Delta governors, because the funds are meant for the oil-producing communities in the region and for the development of the people in the creeks directly. President Muhammadu Buhari has listened to the cry and the agitation of the RNDA and he has agreed to remove the 13% derivation monies from the hands of the governors after the forthcoming presidential election. That is the reason why we the Reformed Niger Delta Avengers, with the coalition of the nine militant groups in the creeks, endorsed President Muhammadu Buhari and we are going to do anything possible in the creeks of the Niger Delta to make sure that he wins the presidential election, because he is a man of integrity, honest character and a patriotic Nigerian, who is not corrupt like the PDP and its presidential candidate, Atiku.”