Niger Delta: Fears Of Renewed Strike Looms

Niger Delta: Fears Of Renewed Strike Looms, As Soldiers Raid Rivers Community

FRESH uncertainty is currently hanging over the Niger Delta, Nigeria's volatile oil and gas region, as citizens woke up on Tuesday with a shocking news of the armed security forces raid on Kula, a Kalabari island community in the bank of the Atlantic Ocean.

Kalabari, is one of the major Ijaw clans in the Rivers State axis of the oil and gas region. Thge community is however, located in Akuku Toru Local Government Area of ther state.

The main insurgent network in the oil region, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) in a dawn on-line statement on Tuesday, claimed that in the midst of negotiations towards a comprehensive resolution of the unrest in the Niger Delta, ''the Nigerian military Joint Task Force (JTF) today, Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 0600 hours invaded the Kula community in Akuku Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State ostensibly to search for hidden weapons''.

MEND Spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, who wired the statement added, ''specifically targeted was the home of our former Commander, Christian don Pedro which was extensively destroyed''.

Although the special security outfit was yet to react to the alleged incident, MEND however, said, ''this assault on the Kula community yielded nothing''.

According to Gbomo, ''MEND considers such harassment and intimidation of ex-fighters and innocent communities an act of bad faith and a breach of the trust these ex-fighters placed in the Nigerian government with their voluntary surrender.

''We urge the Nigerian government to investigate this infringement and call to order its trigger happy minister for defense.

''MEND will not tolerate the continued harassment of communities by the Nigerian military and will take appropriate retaliatory actions the next time any community within the Niger Delta is attacked by the Nigerian military''.

ENDS

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