Home | contact | archive | photos | links |

Home

Niger delta awareness / home /

Section Links Geo Ethnic Description Notable Resistance Oil, Gas and Environmental Degradation Corporate Social Responsibility Quotes

APPEAL FOR PUBLIC TRIAL FOR HENRY OKAH AND EDWARD ATATAH Henry Okah and Edward Atatah are undergoing trial in secret and this is a call for a fair and open trial. State sponsored massacre deepens insecurity in the Niger Delta region Sunday, 17 May 2009 18:19 By Anyakwee Nsirimovu Press Statement   Port Harcourt, May 16, 2009: The Niger Delta Civil Society Coalition(NDCSC)  is shocked beyond believe learning of the latest massacre of people  and razing to ground zero, communities  of the Niger Delta by the President Yar’ Adua led regime in a ‘democracy’.  The very sick, impotent and illegitimate government of President Ya’Adua,  that have hardly moved Nigeria an inch  forward in terms of any  visible human development, have shown by its authorization of the latest massacre  and orphaning  of further thousands of children in the  Gbaranmatu kingdom, of  the region in the latest inferno, that there is a well written script and strategy for regimes in Nigeria, to go to any length – genocide inclusive, to expend the peoples of the region, wipe out their livelihood,  to enable oil that fed their primitive  accumulation of wealth,  flow without let or hindrance. The indiscriminate shelling and slaughtering of women, children and helpless seniors in the communities by federal soldiers of fortune, has no doubt put a lid on the mockery public relation exercise, flagged off recently by the President, in the name of amnesty and peaceful settlement in the region. The cleansing strategy adopted in the wasting of Odi, Odioma, Agge, and Umuechem has been repeated in the Gbaranmatu kingdom, all the time, the military making sure that the number of the raped, slaughtered, maimed and abused is never fully known in order not to horrify a conscious humane world. The level of human rights abuses in the region by the governments and military task forces has assumed a very high level proportion that merits international attention for necessary action, by way of bringing pressure to bear on an unresponsive illiberal regime, to humanely deal with the legitimate and just demands of the peoples of the region. The NDCSC maintains and very strongly too,  that the conflict in the Niger Delta  is about  age long gross and attested violations of cultural, social, economic, political and environmental rights of the minority citizens, therefore, beyond the orchestration of criminality and oil bunkering that deflates  from the fundamentality and community support for the genuine struggle for social justice.  The orchestration of criminality and greed theory, leaving out friends and members of the regime who drive the arms proliferation and oil bunkering industrial complex for punishment, continue to make the federal government and oil multinationals look good internationally, in the face of human degradation in the region.  Let it not be forgotten that structural violence of the State linked with inhuman standards of operations of oil multinationals, began the current cycle of violence.  The criminal response of the State to what was a peaceful agitation by the  Ogoni social movement , led by late Ken Saro-Wiwa, led to a change of strategy  by  peoples who now genuinely believe that an imposed government, holds no measure of security to their livelihood.  This has inevitably led to the growing secondary forms of violence, such as hostage taking and destruction of oil facilities. The NDCSC wishes to strongly draw the attention of the international community and sister democracy movements, to the fact human needs are continually being frustrated on a large scale by illegitimate federal and state regimes in the Niger Delta.  Experience over the decades has shown that the more arbitrary law and order is enforced in the region to control helplessness and frustration, in the midst of abundance and evil governance, the more the helplessness and frustration.  Our genuine fears  and concern is that, rather than military  massacre to put a lid on demand for just peace;  from the humiliation and further loss, will spring  some other forms of extreme  agitation, to continue to emphasize and demonstrate to  the world,  that continue to tolerate competitive authoritarian regimes in Nigeria, that there are features of the regimes in the Niger Delta that   are repugnant to justice  and  human dignity, that are unacceptable to the peoples, and are worth dying for. The NDCSC therefore, wishes to renew the demand of the peoples of the region for just peace to mean:  demand for sustainable development that has been deliberately kept away from them. They ask that the poor and vulnerable be at the centre of the development process in their communities – also the protection of the life opportunities of future generations and the natural systems on which all life depends. The NDCSC once again  calls on the global civilized  nations and democracy movements to take their responsibility to protect  human subjects anywhere in the world, including democratic principles seriously, by calling  on the illiberal regimes in Nigeria, who are intent on destroying the enormous investment in democracy building by  democracy defenders,  to urgently respond to the just demands of the peoples of the Niger Delta, as forced peace will surely compound the avoidable  catastrophe waiting to happen in that part of the world. Signed: Anyakwee Nsirimovu Chair, NDCSC Niger Delta Civil Society Coalition (NDCSC) Secretariat:  c/o 2B, Railway Close, D/Line, Port Harcourt. Rivers State.  Niger Delta Region. Nigeria. Tel/Fax:  234- 84-231 – 716 NIGERIA IS A FAILED STATE, says ex-MINISTER FG MERGES MILITARY FORCES IN NIGER DELTA.... UMARU YAR'ADUA'S WHITEHOUSE VISIT HOPES DASHED- PLEASE STAY AWAY FOR NOW' US TELL NIGERIAN LEADER.... NIGER DELTA CONGRATULATES PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA AND PRAY FOR UNITED STATES SUPPORT FOR INDEPENDENCE..... NIGER DELTA VIDEOS....

MEND writes Yar'adua on "Amnesty" Friday, 05 June 2009 11:05 By Jomo Gbomo Mr President: I hope this letter reaches you and your family well. Your recent call again to lay down arms as you received a report from the Godwin Abbe panel set up to work out the details of your amnesty offer is the reason I write you on behalf of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). The whole ceremony was like a déjà vu. It is no different from the show you put up when you received the report of the Niger Delta Technical Committee which was never implemented. The civilized world expected your apology to the hundreds of displaced and relatives of dead civilians caused by the indiscriminate aerial bombing targeted at innocent impoverished communities from a cowardly armed forces meant to instil fear. Without root issues addressed, the efforts of this panel will be another waste of time. The very reason for militancy is because of injustice. Fiscal federalism is among the things that will silence our guns. We are not intimidated by the size of your armed forces or impressed by its latest acquisitions because that has never won a war. The Americans can tell you that from their experience in Vietnam. A simple reversal to fiscal federalism will save you the trouble of another future ceremony where you are made to receive piles of worthless paper.

---

Curse of the Black Gold

About Us | Site Map | Privacy Policy | Contact Us | ©2003 Company Name