Foreign-based group behind bomb attacks - President

By Felix Onuah

October 3, 2010 07:56PM


A small terrorist group based outside Nigeria not militants from the oil-producing Niger Delta carried out last week's car bomb attacks in the capital Abuja, President Goodluck Jonathan said on Sunday.

Two car bombs exploded near a parade marking Nigeria's 50th anniversary of independence in the capital Abuja on Friday, killing at least 12 people. [ID:nLDE691054

The attacks were claimed by Nigeria's main militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).

A MEND statement signed Jomo Gbomo -- the pseudonym used by the group to claim previous attacks on Nigeria's oil industry -- was emailed to media warning the area should be evacuated an hour before the Abuja bombs went off.

But Jonathan said investigations had revealed MEND members knew nothing about the attacks and they had been carried out by a small group based outside Nigeria, sponsored by "unpatriotic elements within the country".

"It is a small terrorist group that resides outside Nigeria that was paid by some people within to perpetrate the dastardly act," Jonathan said, according to a statement from his office.

"We are on their trail and I promise Nigerians that the matter will be investigated to the last and until everybody is brought to book, we will not rest."

Jonathan said on Saturday those responsible had used the MEND name to "camouflage criminality and terrorism".

Senior militant arrested

Henry Okah, a senior MEND figure, was arrested in South Africa on Saturday under counter-terrorism laws and is due to appear in court in Johannesburg on Monday, his lawyer said.

"The warrant of arrest alleges that he contravened the Protection of Constitutional Democracy Against Terrorist and Related Activities Act , He totally denies any wrongdoing anywhere," Okah's lawyer Piet du Plessis told Reuters.

Security experts believe Okah -- who accepted the government amnesty last year after gun-running and treason charges against him were dropped -- was at one time the brains behind MEND, although he has denied ever being its leader.

MEND carried out attacks on oilfields and pipelines in the Niger Delta, home to Africa's biggest oil and gas industry, for years until accepting an amnesty in 2009.

It has said it is fighting for a fairer share of the natural wealth for the vast wetlands region, whose villages remain mired in poverty despite five decades of crude oil extraction.

But MEND has always been a nebulous organisation and the line between militancy and criminality has long been blurred.

Many of the gangs that carried out attacks in the group's name were originally set up as sabotage squads to help rig elections, rights groups and security analysts say.

They went on to thrive on a lucrative trade in stolen oil and on ransoms paid for kidnapped foreigners and wealthy Nigerians and effectively work as guns-for-hire, security experts say.

Jonathan inherited the presidency this year after the death of President Umaru Yar'Adua. One of his main achievements while serving as Yar'Adua's deputy had been helping to cement the amnesty deal in the Niger Delta.

He faces an election next year and some analysts have questioned whether the Abuja bombs were intended to undermine his credibility by showing the Niger Delta issue is unresolved.

REUTERS

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Another unsubstantiated beer parlor rumor peddling by our president. This man should know he cannot win sympathy by making a fool of himself. It's either GEJ is extremely naive or he thinks he thinks Nigerians are too dumb not to be able to see through these pack of lies.

MEND is not responsible, yet MEND leader Henry Okah has been arrested (and perhaps released for lack of evidence against him). So what's the outcome of the $100 million meant for the operation?

Why can't his advisers save him from making these useless and baseless announcements. If he has nothing to say, he might as well keep mum!

why is it taking Nigerians so long to understand JEG

HE IS F***CKING responsible for the blast
he want to use it to blackmail his opponents(IBB and ATIKU)
Can't you guys seee??

this president has Gone Gaga. he thinks this kind of conspiracy can work in Nigeria
Jonathan is a Joke.

@9ijaMan and ferari90
What do you 'two' (or one person hiding under two user-names)
gain by hopping from one thread to the other scandalizing your president for?
Are you a paid agent of one of the aspirants?
You are making much more mockery of yourself instead.
We are tired of these user-names, create another and use.

Goddex:

@9ijaMan and ferari90
What do you 'two' (or one person hiding under two user-names)
gain by hopping from one thread to the other scandalizing your president for?
Are you a paid agent of one of the aspirants?
You are making much more mockery of yourself instead.
We are tired of these user-names, create another and use.

@Goddex,
I suppose you are not happy that I'm utilizing my God given brains properly. I do not need a soothsayer nor a PhD. holder to explain to me that GEJ is not expereinced enough for the position he's occupying.

I use my senses to reason appropriately instead of towing the path of blind follower-ship. Please get that into your coconut. I will hate to have another 4 years of this inept man in Aso rock.

9ijaMan:

@Goddex,
I suppose you are not happy that I'm utilizing my God given brains properly. I do not need a soothsayer nor a PhD. holder to explain to me that GEJ is not expereinced enough for the position he's occupying.

I use my senses to reason appropriately instead of towing the path of blind follower-ship. Please get that into your coconut. I will hate to have another 4 years of this inept man in Aso rock.

You are not being sensible but bias. I have been reading all your posts concerning this bomb blast issue. Your plan is to take advantage of GEJ's comments to run him down. You probably do not have any information at your disposal (GEJ has) except newspaper reports and internet. A 'sensible' man will wait a little while for his President to proof his point and not jump into conclusions.

Goddex:

You are not being sensible but bias. I have been reading all your posts concerning this bomb blast issue. Your plan is to take advantage of GEJ's comments to run him down. You probably do not have any information at your disposal (GEJ has) except newspaper reports and internet. A 'sensible' man will wait a little while for his President to proof his point and not jump into conclusions.

@ Goddex,
I have nothing to gain or lose to run GEJ down. I do not work for the government. I'm not a PDP card carrying member neither I'm I campaigning for any particular candidate. Yes I agree with you that a sensible man will wait until the end of the investigations. That is exactly what I and millions of Nigerians are expecting from GEJ. Yesterday it was not MEND but some militants, this morning it was Henry Okah after he collected $100 million from some politicians inside 9ja and tonight it's some small militant group who came from outside 9ja. Which of these versions should we stick to. You may be a GEJ apologist, I am not. Perhaps you need to advice your man GEJ to stop making a mockery of himself and the presidency by simply keeping mum until the end of the investigation.

9ijaMan:

MEND is not responsible, yet MEND leader Henry Okah has been arrested

Correction, MEND former leader!

Are you guys paid to discredit GEJ?

Before, you were shouting that he should tell the people responsible since it is  not MEND.
Now he has told you the group responsible, and you are still making noise.
I know the next thing you guys want are names of the people and so on, forgetting that it can jeopardise the investigation.

I beg ,make wunna leave GEJ alone. Nigeria is very complex. Obama can  make such statements and no one sees any  fault in it. But in Nigeria it is different.
Ethnic and religious sentiments play big role in what people see as fault.

So lets get it clear!

Now you call this place a country or a community? My country is nothing but exactly as the decentralized system of govt in the pre-colonial igbo land where everybody stands for his opinion and judgment. ( only GOD know who's the liar here, the newspapers?, Mr President? or Mend ?

I read a news about Mend sending email to press to announce that people should evacuate the area before 10:30am, at around 2pm it blasted, as i read.

Okah denied any involvement or knowledge about it, even after the SA police raid his house and found no evidence. Some rumoured he was paid $100M to get the job done.

I read another news about Mend claiming the action and apologies to those involved.

Okah was arrested and jailed, till monday hearing!

My president said Mend no nothing about it, that its a small terrorist from outside the country.

>>>>>>>>>

My suspicions:
Why arrest Okah since no evidence found in his house and yet its not Mends action

Why would he make personal judgement all in the name of him being from the part of the country personal judgment or protocol

Im pretty sure, sometime next week there will be another news that probably IBB, Atiku, Gusau, Saraki or Buhari sent those boys, who knows

I suspect our President might be a suspect here who knows, hoping to nail his competitors ?

PLEASE TELL HIM IT DOESNT WORK IN NAIJA, WE AINT THAT DUMB.
ALL OF YA GEJ SUPPORTERS, WAITING FOR YOUR CRITICS!!!

I hope nobody would be framed as usually.

How are you sure it is not the nigeria army. They have the brain and skill to do it. but why would anyone want to defend MEND.??

I have said it over again that GEJ is responsible for the attack
the reason is to blackmail his opponents but the plans are falling apart
He said mend is not responsible while Henry okah is being held in SA and willl soon be charged to court
He is the most insecure President on Earth and his insecurity can cause us our Unity