Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, Sunday, insisted that Ijaw National leader, Chief Edwin Clark, lacked the moral authority to be championing the restructuring of the country.
The group also alleged that Clark and the other leaders of the region kept quiet during the six-year administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
MEND stated this via a statement signed by its spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, the defunct militant group called on the Federal Government to ignore the resolution reached at Friday’s Niger Delta stakeholders consultative meeting held at the Petroleum Training Institute Conference Centre Effurun, Delta State.
The statement said that the leaders of the region failed to categorically condemn the criminal and treasonable activities of the Niger Delta Avengers which had claimed responsibility for series of attacks on oil facilities in the region.
While reiterating its support for the use of the military against the militants in the region, MEND said those who attended the meeting lacked the capacity to persuade the people of the Niger Delta to support the current efforts of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to bring peace and development to the region
The statement reads, “MEND hereby advises the Federal Government to ignore the communiqué which was released at the end of the meeting for the following reasons: The communiqué failed to categorically condemn the criminal and treasonable activities of the Niger Delta Avengers. This was principally because, the notable promoter of the meeting, Chief Edwin Clark, was recently named by the Reformed Niger Delta Avengers as a major supporter of the NDA.
“Chief Edwin Clark lacks the moral authority to lead a discussion on the so-called “re-structuring” of the Nigerian federation, at this critical point in the country’s history; given the fact that, throughout the six years his “son”, former President Goodluck Jonathan, was in power the elder statesman kept mute and actively participated in the economic dismemberment of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In fact, Chief Clark’s Abuja residence was an extension of the State House.”
Continuing, MEND said, “None of the persons who attended the stakeholders’ meeting convened by Chief Clark and Governor Okowa have the capacity to persuade the people of the Niger Delta region to support the current efforts of the Buhari Administration to bring peace and development to the region.
“Consequently, MEND re-iterates its full support for the ongoing military presence in the Niger Delta region; even as we prepare to tour the region to drum support for the current administration in an exercise code-named ‘Operation Moses.’
“MEND shall continue to insist that; so long as these elders and stakeholders do not categorically and publicly denounce the NDA, the Federal Government should also continue to ignore them.”
