Nigeria: Militants Tackle Italy On Niger Crisis

Nigeria: Militants Tackle Italy On Niger Delta Crisis

THE offer by the Italian Government, to provide Nigeria with two attack boats to confront the menace of armed youths in the volatile Niger Delta, has drawn the ire of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), a major insurgent network in the oil and gas region.

Italian Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, recently claimed that his country will be willing to offer Nigeria's Armed Forces two attack boats to aid their battle against terror in the Niger Delta.

But MEND Spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, in an on-line statement yesterday, said the Nigerian military ''is waging an unjust war against the people of the Niger Delta region''.

According to them, ''at a time when groups like the Coventry Cathedral and others are working towards the path of dialogue, peace and reconciliation, Italy, like the British government believes that the best way to keep the blood oil flowing from the Niger Delta is by supporting an undisciplined army and an illegitimate government to oppress a people long marginalized and raped''.

Continuing, MEND said, ''we know that the attack boats are like samples for the future purchase of similar ones to patronize the Italian boat manufacturers, and the receivers are too blind and foolish to see that this is just another commercial Trojan horse''.

The insurgent group said it wish to put Agip, an Italian oil major, on notice that its government like that of Britain has by this action put its workers and Italian companies in the region at serious risk

''Today, the consequences of the ill-advised remarks of Gordon Brown is being felt by two frightened British nationals held prisoner in the eerie creeks of the Niger Delta.

''Recently, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) during a government sponsored seminar, called for the closure of all militant camps. In the same venue, they were ranting about the Northern dominated oil and gas sector appointments.

''MEND supersedes the IYC because we are made up of all the ethnic groups in the Niger Delta and the call to close camps must come from all the ethnic nationalities in the region from whose sacred mandate MEND was formed.

''We wonder if the IYC is not aware that the North will continue to dominate the resources of the region if only groups that can bark without biting such as the IYC exists'', they said.

ENDS

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