OSINBAJO/ PANDEF MEETING: Militants withdraw mandate to Clark, PANDEF

AHEAD today’s meeting of Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo and leaders of Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, there was a noticeable discord in the Niger Delta, yesterday, as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND and the Reformed Egbesu Assembly, REF, withdrew their mandate from the Chief Edwin Clark-led forum.

MEND in a statement by the spokesperson, Jomo Gbomo, said the Clark and King Alfred Diete-Spiff group lacked the moral justification to issue ultimatum to the Federal Government, while the General Officer Commanding, REF, Tony Alagbakereowei, said the group has lost its relevance in the scheme of things.

Dissociating MEND from PANDEF, Gbomo asserted: “In view of our irreconcilable differences, MEND hereby recalls its representatives in PANDEF for consultation with immediate effect.”

The group noted: “PANDEF, led by elder statesmen Chief Edwin Clark and His Royal Highness King Alfred Diette -Spiff, lack the moral justification in giving an ultimatum to the Federal Government and making demands they never made from Goodluck Jonathan when he was at the helm for six wasted years.”

“Instead of listening to the so-called Niger Delta activists and the compromised Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), who have miraculously regained the voices they lost when Jonathan was President, and instead of issuing threats through fake internet-based militant groups, PANDEF ought to have used the forum and opportunity to commend the Federal Government for exposing the monumental looting of our commonwealth by some sons and daughters of the soil, starting from the former President, his wife Patience, cousins, relatives and cronies and so many other traitors; down to the mind boggling theft by Dieziani Allison-Madueke, who empowered others while her people lived in squalor and abject poverty.

“PANDEF is also pretending not to notice that the Amnesty Program is still operating on the corrupt template that still pays ghost militants after it hoodwinked the government into believing in the fraud. A program that has neglected the children of the dead freedom fighters and those in prison, for those that never made any sacrifice is curse,” MEND said.

Clark should stop aside

Also attacking PANDEF, the Reformed Egbesu Fraternity said: “At age 90, Papa Clark should step aside for younger people if at all, there is the likelihood of further engagement with the Federal Government, but we equally dissociate ourselves from the antics of the federal government in the peace process and calls for outright destruction of the oil economy in our territories and communities to teach the Federal Government a hard lesson.”

“By this resolution, we have withdrawn from the peace process and warn that the Niger Delta ethnic nationalities were never conquered and that we would match fire for fire with the Hausa-Fulani military – we have always spared their lives even when their excesses were glaring but in the next ground of confrontation they would learn in a bitter way,” the group stated.

Its words: ‘Following the press statements emanating from our sister organizations arising from the nonchalant attitude of the federal government and the issue of lack of unity of purpose and acrimony between the leadership of PANDEF, we, the REF, has totally lost confidence in the Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark – led PANDEF.”

REF added: “We hereby withdrew the mandate given them. However, we may revalidate our mandate in the near future if the need arises. We are aware that Chief E.K. Clark and his cohorts are billed to attend a meeting in the Presidential Villa on Thursday August 3, 2017. They do not represent us.”