BEHOLD THE NIGER DELTA MILITANTS.

and,

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then,

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Way to go ORAKU! That's the result we get for having[b] rogues [/b] in power!

The Oraku this na 4th world cop ooo

Why don't they use the money they are using to buy guns and ammunitions to develop their region? ONe AK-47 is supposed to be greater than 250,00 naira!

oooooooomoooo eh! nawah oh! were dem get there bullet proof vests from?

Thank you Seun. If they are genuinely concerned about their people, money used to buy arms can build decent houses and schools.

Actually the prices of light weapons tend to drop significantly in war zones.  Currently in Liberia, Sierra Leone or the Democratic Republic of Congo's former bad-lands, an AK can be picked up for 100 US dollars or less, which is about 15 thousand Nigerian naira.

The more imposing  RPG7 rocket-propelled grenade launchers and belt-fed 50 caliber General Purpose Machine Guns in Oraku's photos are only slightly more pricey.   A direct hit from an RPG round would instantly reduce a running vehicle to a smoking flat chassis, so one can empathize with the Nigerian army boys detailed to confront that sort of ordnance in unfamiliar swamp land.

Haha pictures from yahoo.com.

Remember these pictures. Those misguided boys may be dead or in prison within 2-3 wks if the hostages are not released.

They look like a group of boys who've been watching too many American films.

Jakumo:

Actually the prices of light weapons tend to drop significantly in war zones. Currently in Liberia, Sierra Leone or the Democratic Republic of Congo's former bad-lands, an AK can be picked up for 100 US dollars or less, which is about 15 thousand Nigerian naira.

Capitalism at its finest. The arms dealers must be rubbing their hands with glee at the opportunity of another conflict in Africa

Guys,
We need DIVINE intervention like in yesterday.

Emmanuel

I am not in support of the vilolence or the hard line tactics, I was oppourtuned to visit Warri twice last year and God, you cannot but feel for the these people. I was only around the outskirts, I wonder what i would have seen had I gone further inland. Our government should do more for these people or the situation could get even worse.

The state governments should do more for their people and their people should hold their state governments accountable as well. They get more money than other states to the tune of billions of naira. There should at least be some development on the ground.

And the Federal Government should do more for carrying away over 90% of the regions revenue and installing stooges/cronies to steal the peanuts that is allocated to the region.

There should at least be somethng in the region to show for the trillions taken from there to develop other areas

I am insupport of the Militants fighting for a share of what is theirs. if they do not fight who will fight for them
But the Guns that is scary. i wonder what the gave in exchange for the guns.

That these boys are coming out strong justify a decayed nation. I wonder if a bank manager will wake up one day and instead of getting to his office decide to go and get an AK and head to one island.

These people don't have the opportunity to make that shot. I don't blame them neither do i support them. I blamed the leaders.

This same thing happened in El Salvador in the 1980s.

Remember, A suppressed mind is a depressed mind.

My Professor in college also feels for this peopleWhen i went as far as telling her their preidcaments ,she was moved !!!!

If they can get a good business plan and a good roadmap, their break away is only a stone throw away.

joftech:

If they can get a good business plan and a good roadmap, their break away is only a stone throw away.

Thank you.

The road map is already on the drawing board. We cannot fail to achieve our set out goals and objectives. If we fail, our generations yet unborn will exhume our corpses and desecrate our graves when we are long gone.

But, they will honor our memories, like that of the late Isaac Adaka Boro and Ken Saro Wiwa of blessed memory when they find out that we did not sit with our oppressors at a round table and feed on chicken and pork when our resources are used to better our oppressors lot!

But that we fought galantly (and even shed our blood), took the bulls by the horn, challenged the status quo ante and obtain our freedom.

I was reading in The Comet and one stupid lawmaker was advocating full scale military action. I wonder if that idiot has ever seen what happened in Afganistan.

Who could have ever imagine those Talibans will eventually bring down he almighty USSR.

No be me dey talk na priminister dey talk e so.
Hostages: The Militants’ Riot Act


When in another daring move reminiscent of what happened in January, when four foreign oil workers were abducted at a Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) location in offshore Bayelsa State, Ijaw youths took another nine expatriates oil workers as hostage, no one was surprise except possibly the Federal Government.
Government had earlier ordered the military to attack alleged illegal oil bunkerers in one of the riverine Ijaw community. In the retaliation, youths of the community proceeded not only to confront the men of the Nigerian Armed Forces, but also destroyed valuable economic property of the nation.
This action of the youths signaled a new dimension in what is happening in the Niger Delta and as the youths, this time around were ready to dare all to tell the world that the Nigerian Government has lost control over what is happening within its borders, most especially in the oil rich Niger Delta, land which produces the minerals that sustain the nation’s economy.
Before now, it was unheard of that anybody would confront the army and get away with it. In December, 1999 when 12 policemen were brutally murdered by suspected Ijaw youths at Odi in Bayelsa state, the entire town paid the price as the community was completely leveled by the Nigerian Military.
Determined to “take their future in their own hands”, the youths confronted the Federal Government and struck where it matters most: the economic nerve centre, the oil export terminal an action that forced the government to set process of negotiation negotiate with the militant youths.
However, what is generally agreed by almost everyone is that the Niger Delta is a most neglected, pathetic and pitiable part of Nigeria. However, the attack on the early hours of Saturday February 18, by the dare-devil Ijaw commandos on specifically selected and strategically located oil facilities and installations in the western Niger Delta was devastating.
To prove that they are really ready for whatever retaliatory move the government would make in response to their action, the youth took as hostages nine expatriates working for an oil servicing company on contract with Shell, the nation’s largest oil producing company.
And so the negotiation for the release of the nine men who are from America, Britain, Thailand, Egypt, and the Philippines began. Humbled, the tough talking Federal Government was forced to eat its words by choosing to negotiate with the militants.
Even the Delta State Governor, Chief James Ibori in order to avoid his state becoming a theater of war, went the extra mile to talk to the militants. Before then, it was assumed that the faceless members of the group-- Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) were responsible for the attack as the group continued to make inflammatory statements. In addition, another militant group in Okerenkoko and Gbaramatu: Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities (FNDIC) was fingered as being responsible for the statements and other attacks. The group is led by Chief Oboko Bello.
Bello was immediately contacted and negotiation started between the group and government representatives led by another Gbaramatu leader, Chief Jonathan Ari. The Bello team made a ten point demand that must be met by the government before the hostages are to be released.
The demands of FNDIC which is contained in a letter addressed to President Olusegun Obasanjo and signed by Chief Bello Oboko, President; Mr. Kingsley Otuaro, secretary general, Chief Government Ekpomupolo, director of mobilisation, Hon. George Timinimi, spokesman and Comrade Dan Ekpebide, chief adviser include that government should create the conducive environment necessary for dialogue.
Other demands for the release of the remaining three hostages, the group insist that government must:
•Ensure that oil companies no longer operate behind the terror of soldiers, disband the security Joint Task Force and demilitarise Ijaw land;
•Stop further pollution and extinguish all gas flares now.
•For peaceful resolution of the situation, set up a credible government negotiation team with sufficient authority to take far-reaching decision on behalf of government.
•The Ijaw will set up a negotiation team of elders, women and youths.
•Any discussion with the Ijaw should take place in an acceptable place and not in places that will evoke the memories of Ijaw impoverishment.
•The Ijaw intend to chronicle their demands for consideration when and only when there is sufficient willingness on the part of government to dialogue and their negotiating team put in place.
•For lasting resolution of the situation, vendetta, reprisal, witch-hunting be ruled out.
• Out of sight is out of mind. To keep at a distant issues of violence, aggressive rehabilitation programme of Ijaw youths be embarked upon.
•The peace process should be coordinated and facilitated by a neutral world recognised peace building organisation.
•International observers be accredited and allowed to observe proceedings.

In order to show its magnanimity, FDNIC agreed to release one of the hostages, 69 years old Macon Hawkins, an American who is frail and sick with diabetic. Governor James Ibori persuade the group to release five more so that he would have a bargaining chip that he can use when negotiating with the Federal Government on the issues raised by the group.
That the federal government was humbled by a group of marauding youths became evident when Ibori had to personally take the letter of demand to Obasanjo in Abuja on Thursday, a few hours after the men were released.
Now the fate of the remaining three men is unknown even as news of the presence of men of the Anti-terrorist Group of the American Marine continued to filter in. The militants who are now garrisoned in their “Aso Rock Barracks” in Okerenkoko said they are waiting.
The barrack is located within a number houses built by Bilfinger and Berger Oil and Gas Company (B+B), a subsidiary of construction giant, Julius Berger Nigeria Limited when it had a construction job in the area for Shell. The company was however forced to abandon the area and flee at the height of the Warri crisis.
The buildings were immediately converted to barracks by the army of FNDIC with Chief Government Ekpomupolo as the general officer commanding (GOC).
It was at this barrack that the men of the Joint Task Force (JTF) on the Niger Delta, Operation Restore Hope wanted to destroy when the helicopter of the Nigerian Air Force bombarded Okerenkoko on February 15 and 17, a situation which led to the reprisal action by the youths.
The military decided to use aerial bombardment because Okerenkoko had become a “No Go” area for men of the Nigerian Armed Forces. Even when in 2002 and 2003 the men of the Nigeria Navy attempted to take the town, they suffer humiliating defeats.
It was such defeats that prompted the use of the Air Force plane instead of invading the well garrisoned town through the waterways, the only way in. Even as the boys hold on to the three remaining expatriates, they have ordered the venerable out of Okerenkoko as they prepare for more battle.
Right now, the Federal Government has suffered humiliating defeat while the nation’s economy has continued to suffer as almost 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day has been closed down, a loss of almost 20 per cent of the nation’s total oil out put.
The question that is now agitating the minds of many is whether the Federal Government is going to renege on the agreement reached with the boys and dare another attack in order to save face? That is the question and only time will tell.

I particularly like this demand:

. Any discussion with the Ijaw should take place in an acceptable place and not in places that will evoke the memories of Ijaw impoverishment.

OBJ should go and discuss with the militants in the creeks!!!! Not in Abuja, Lagos, Enugu or Kano.

REGIONAL RIVALRY

The rhetoric feeds into a growing regional rivalry in Nigeria to succeed President Olusegun Obasanjo after elections next year.

The vote in 2007 should mark the first time one civilian president hands over to another in Nigeria's 47 years as an independent nation. But the process of choosing a successor has been stymied by a campaign to amend the constitution to allow Obasanjo to stand for a third term.

U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte predicted "major turmoil and conflict" if Obasanjo, who has been evasive about his plans, confirms a desire to run again.

"Such chaos in Nigeria could lead to disruption of oil supply, secessionist moves by regional governments, major refugee flows, and instability elsewhere in West Africa," he told a Senate briefing in early February.

These fears are understandable in Nigeria, where at least 14,000 people have been killed in political, ethno-religious and communal violence since the restoration of democracy in 1999.

Embryonic secessionist movements exist across the south, while Islamic sharia law is being enforced with increasing seriousness in the north.

Rampant corruption in government has fuelled distrust and rivalry between tribes and regions.

Former Foreign Minister Bolaji Akinyemi said various apparently unconnected crises, including religious protests against Danish cartoons in northern Nigeria which killed 16 people on Saturday, could combine into something more dangerous.

"The government should keep in mind there is a danger that a whole bunch of grievances -- whether cartoons, Niger Delta or opposition to a third term -- could coalesce into a huge uncontrollable grievance," he told Reuters.

Na so na sidon look we dey do now so my work na just to feed una with information so that una go dey see developments outside nigeria.GOD BLESS NIGER DELTA abi this one go vex some people too

@ono, isaac boro:
i read in the papers that tomorow friday 10th will be an operation mambo day on oil coys.

I was just wondering what coys they will be attacking. Please if u knw, just tell me as i happen to work
with one of them.

ono:

Thank you.

The road map is already on the drawing board. We cannot fail to achieve our set out goals and objectives. If we fail, our generations yet unborn will exhume our corpses and desecrate our graves when we are long gone.

But, they will honor our memories, like that of the late Isaac Adaka Boro and Ken Saro Wiwa of blessed memory when they find out that we did not sit with our oppressors at a round table and feed on chicken and pork when our resources are used to better our oppressors lot!

But that we fought galantly (and even shed our blood), took the bulls by the horn, challenged the status quo ante and obtain our freedom.

Buhahahaha! Some of you crack me up. God I need to pee.

Watching and waiting,
Boro Just keep posting the Publications oohh don't' say anything,
Cause if you talk I go talk, Make we dey look.