[b][/b]The Niger Delta Militant Groups emerged from the creation of the IYC which later splitted into two creating the birth of the NDV. From the first split, several militant sects keep emerging yearly from formerly existing ones.
Here's a detailed article on the history of the Niger Delta Militant Movement and Challenges.
The Ijaw Youth Council’s (IYC) militant wing which gave birth to a much more organized militant group, one of them, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) first emerged in December 2005 during the OBJ administration when it took credit for blowing up an oil pipeline in Delta state. It is not clear who activated the group or coined its name, but it soon became clear that MEND was a useful tool for Ijaw Chief Edwin Clark in containing his arch rival, Rivers Gov. Peter Odili. By early 2006, as Nigeria geared up for its third round of elections in 2007, a different kind of militant group was waging war in the Delta.
The Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF), the militant wing of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), had been decapitated in September 2005 when the government arrested IYC President and NDPVF leader Dokubo-Asari on charges of treason. As in 2003, when the NDPVF was formed, Ijaw Chief Edwin Clark needed a strong militant capability and framework to challenge Rivers Gov. Peter Odili and emerge as the premier power broker in the Niger Delta. Clark no longer had Asari, but he still had some of Asari’s network of NDPVF deputies reconnoitering through the region.
In December 2005, an umbrella militant group emerged calling itself the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), made up of former Asari deputies and factions empowered to carry out attacks in their home territories. Their first operation was an attack on Royal Dutch Shell’s Opobo pipeline in the oil creek of Delta state. MEND has yet to identify its founder or current leader some annonymous source announced in May 2007 that newly elected Vice President Goodluck Jonathan was a MEND patron. Jonathan also is widely known as a protégé of Ijaw Chief Clark’s. During the current JTF and MEND clash, Dokubo-Asari has labelled the vice president "A traitor".
At the time, the leaders of known MEND factions included Farah Dagogo, whose gang in the Tombia epicenter of Rivers state became known as the Niger Delta Strike Force (NDSF); Ebikabowei Victor (aka Victor Ben and Gen. Boyloaf), who commanded the faction Bayelsa state axis; Government Ekpemupolo (aka Gen. Tammo and Government Tompolo), whose faction, headquartered near the town of Warri in Delta state, was called the Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities; and Soboma George, whose gang, since breaking from Ateke Tom and his Niger Delta Vigilante (NDV), became known as the Outlaws and served as another MEND faction in Rivers state.
MEND also included an arms dealer named Henry Okah, who was based in South Africa until his arrest in Luanda, Angola, in September 2007 on arms smuggling charges. The international community and Nigerian government blamed him and his unknown backers for worsening militancy cesspit within the area. Okah was later extradited to Nigeria, where he is being held on charges of treason.
MEND was launched as a tool of the Ijaw to attain national prominence at a time when the presidency was up for grabs. Odili had made his move and Clark, from all indications, had responded. Odili had Tom and the NDV; Clark had Asari’s network, rechristened MEND, which began conducting attacks in the weeks following Asari’s imprisonment in November 2005. In addition to fighting Tom’s forces, MEND attacked oil infrastructure targets as they had never been attacked before, sabotaging pipelines, bunkering oil and kidnapping foreign oil workers for ransom.
Planned attacks by MEND gave them a sudden national recognition. A bigger recognition by the deprived Ijaws. And an influx of cash, most of them, ransoms paid by oil giants within the Niger Delta creek and also the government. MEND strategy was entirely different: filling political offices with its enlightened members, not interested in quick pay-offs but to get in a round table with government and oil sector officials and work bigger deals and negotiations where their interests are usually met. But they did go alittle extreme when their attacks started leading to shuttering reduction of more than half a million barrels of crude outputs - a quarter of the nations oil workers. They have kidnapped hundreds, with not a single victim killed. Ex president Obasanjo's offensive wasn't so clamorous because given his military background, he understood the power of communication. His administration success in alienating the militants, and cutting their leadership by stripping most Ijaw military chiefs off their power, and creating a think-tank that had better media and public orchestration than the uncommunicative Yar'adua's administration.
It didn't take long before the international oil companies (IOCs) and International community flagged Nigeria as a "Red Zone", and unsafe. Basically, the only thing the country had to offer the developed and partnering countries was crude oil, and most of these crude sites are situated in remote regions. Some of them, buried within the heart of thick swamps in Delta State. A source disclosed that his company rig was as far as 70 miles from the nearest town. The IOCs problem within a short time began escalating with most foreign oil experts and workers declining to work within the region. Not if they are willing to pay high salaries, kidnapping insurances, increased securities measures.
With the militants access to speedboats, and growing bravado, most oil drilling operations done in the depth of Delta had to be abandoned with most oil companies working close to security bases. It was the smart thing to try, not with the seaborne assult that was growing daily.

With Obasanjo's constitutional amendment plan foiled, and Odili's growing ambition for the job becoming more public, Clark began a tough assult on Odili questioning his legitimacy. Odili is Igbo, a minority in the state he was ruling. With pressure in his own state from Celestine Omehia, Odili’s special assistant since 1999 who wanted to be governor after Odili, and Rotimi Amaechi, Rivers state assembly speaker, Odili started pouring money into the PDP, giving large charitable donations to the party in the hope he could win the support of its key members.
It didn't take long before he saw through the smoke-screen and noticed he wasn't going to be the president. Still he pressed on hoping to win the slot of for the Office of the Vice President of the Federation which he also lost.
Seeing how unfavored he was in Abuja, and not understanding Obasanjo's grandplan, he threw his support behind Omehia was later sworn in as Rivers state governor on May 29, 2007. But Omehia's governorship was doomed from the start. An NDPVF-allied gang led by Rivers state militant Prince Igodo, and hired by Amaechi threatened to attack the inauguration. The Outlaws, calling in Farah Dagogo’s NDSF for assistance, proceeded to attack Igodo’s camp, killing the gang leader and preventing an attack on the inaugural festivities.
Some hours after this threat was made public, Yar'adua and Goodluck were sworn into office, putting a big comforting smile in the face of the militants and Clark.
One of Jonathan's pressing task was to fix the release of Asari who got out in June 2007. Yar'adua was assured that Asari would take control of his unbridled militants and put them back in order. How very wrong are they.
Though Asari's return was highly applauded by the Ijaws, there appears a bigger break down in his group. Most of his members have either merged with Soboma George Outlaws or are operating in the same fashion. There were several claims of kidnaps Asari personally has no idea or sanctions on. The militants are alot more scattered, different sects moving around the South, targeting the rich and popular, executing series of poorly planned and random kidnapping and demanding quick ransom and payment.

At home, Omehia faced a bigger threat. Amaechi filed for appeal with the backing of Jonathan and powerful MEND patriots, the Nigerian Supreme Court annulled Omehia's victory. In reality, no election ever took place in the Niger Delta. Not with the high spate of violence during the election period. Amaechi was sworn in, visiting Clark and professing his loyalty, all in the hope of securing his victory.
There was the need to deal with the Outlaws who were all over the place running different spates of kidnapping, the JFT was called in to kill this bigger opposition. From January to June 2008, there were different military operations against the NDV, most of them repelled from the Niger-Delta to neighboring Bayelsa. During the operations, gang leader of the NDPVF Gibson Kala was killed.
During 2008, different quarrels occurred within the Outlaws. There was several claims that bunkering and kidnapping ransoms were unequally shared. The Outlaws were soiling the images of MEND more and more everyday. Every single attack executed by them was blamed on MEND. Dagogo and one leader called Egbiri Papa whose alias is Soboma Jackrich, whose gang became known as the People’s Liberation Force (PLF) were called in to annihilate the Outlaws.
Dagogo didn't stay in positive terms long with the coalition because he was questioned over some numbers of kidnapping. In November 2008, MEND accused the JTF and the Rivers state government of paying $3 million to NDSF insiders to assassinate Dagogo.

Though today in the Niger Delta, Asari-Dokubo has his own entourage and handful of security, because he travels around with about half a dozen MOPOLS securing him, he hasn't been fully consolidated as the leader of MEND. Several loyalists of MEND are not happy with some of the hushed negotiations that has ensured between him and Amaechi and the Federal Government. Odili shares his time living in Abuja and South Africa. The charges the EFCC is pressing against him has long been watered down since the removal of Ribadu Nuhu, the former tough EFCC boss.
Alamieyeseigha released from prison in July, 2007 has maintained a low-profile presence in his home state, and hasn't partaken in any known political participation since. Gov. Emmanuel Uduaghan is on a short leash of MEND and the PDP.
The current so-claimed JFT battle with MEND would come out very soon to be a carefully engineered military campaign to actually crush MEND's threat, not MEND itself. The military although appears general, but a source informed me that its a surgical military onslaught, and when the smoke clears, MEND would still be standing, stronger, and more politically enclouted.
The real war is just two years, or six years away when Yar'adua would hopefully step down from power. It would be a fierce battle then. Between different factions and militant sects in the Niger Delta, Igbos and the Hausas. A sensible and unbiased Yoruba would have been ideal to water down this simmering tension, but we the Yoruba long squandered our golden chance. Thanks to Olusegun Obasanjo.
The future of Nigerian's dependency on oil are numbered if some honest and well-planned frame-works are not quickly established, backed with a powerful and superior military support. The Niger-Delta crisis very much remains in a fresh phase and would definitely escalate unless the government shows it's completely different from the militants. With the PDP still in power, its definitely hard to tell who is better. Militant or Government.[b][/b]