Niger Delta Avengers, the leading militant group operating in the oil rich region of southern Nigeria, has blasted President Muhammadu Buhari in its latest statement saying that the hands of the president are soiled deep in the blood of Ken Saro-Wiwa, late writer, environmentalist, human rights activist, and Ogoni leader.
This statement comes as President Buhari condoled with the family of the late Ogoni icon on the death of his eldest son, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Jnr who passed away this Tuesday, in a London hospital, after suffering a stroke.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday, October 20, 2016 by his spokesperson, Femi Adesina, said that Buhari sympathised with the widow of the late activist on Thursday through telephone.
The president assured the widow that her family was not alone in mourning the passage of the illustrious son of Ogoni land.
One of President Muhammadu Buhari’s first appointments was that of naming a member of the extra-judicial panel that sentenced Ken Saro-Wiwa to death, Colonel Hamid Ali as head of the Nigeria Customs Service in August 2015.
Colonel Ali was military administrator of Kaduna State from 1996 to 1998 under the despotic regime of the late General Sani Abacha.
Reacting to the cold-blooded murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa and 8 other Ogoni indigenes, Col. Ali said he had no regrets over his role in the judicial process that led to Saro Wiwa’s execution.
In November 2015, Colonel Ali ordered the impounding of a sculpture created as a memorial to Ken Saro-Wiwa, which had been sent as a gift to mark the 20th anniversary of their execution by the military government.
| Martin LeSanto-Smith
The militant group, in the statement on Thursday, October 20, 2016, said it found it curious that the president launched the Ogoni cleanup while soldiers of “Operation Delta Safe” were simultaneously burning petroleum products and constituting environmental pollution.
Below is the full statement published on the Niger Delta Avengers website.
The High Command of the Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, is constrained to write you Mr. President, General Muhammadu Buhari on your continuous disparaging remarks; since the cessation and suspension of hostilities by our fighters for liberation of the Niger Delta from economic colonialism of Nigeria.
We are curious of comments like ” Niger Delta militants objective is to colonize Nigeria economically “… “Niger Delta militants are sponsored by economic looters”… During the Passing Out Parade (POP) of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) 63rd Regular Course; where you personally issued misleading statements and threats of decisive military action- if necessary to deal with Niger Delta agitation because you have purportedly opened up channels of talks through security agencies/agents and the Multinational Corporations.
Mr. President do democratically elected governments open channels for talks in situations like we have in the Niger Delta through security agencies/agents or you are assuming the Niger Delta as a conquered colony in your 1984 Era?
Mr. President, you continue to emphasize on the charade you called ” the flagged off process to the cleanup of Ogoni land” as part of your government’s program to salvage the ravaged environment. We are disturbed with the type of rhetoric and politics you are degenerating your age and authority as president of federal republic of Nigeria on issues concerning Niger Delta since you came into office.
You continue to live in pretence and blind to the history of the Niger Delta agitation because of some psychopaths around and advising you… as far as you are concerned, You are as white as the snow! But do I recall that you were once a military governor, a minister of petroleum, military head of state and chairman Petroleum Trust Fund and general Sani Abacha’s henchman (the most corrupt dictator in the history of Africa).
To say the least, your hands are soiled deep in the blood of Kenule Saro-Wiwa (the Ogoni nines), events leading up to the pollution of Ogoni land that you are politicizing the cleanup process. Wait a moment, how come your government is glorifying a charade called Ogoni cleanup while you were a major player in that crime!
How can you justify Ogoni clean up at the same time constitute a Task Force Called “Operations Delta Safe” that is embarking on environmental pollution with the burning and bombing of petroleum products in the guise of fighting oil theft? Does that amount to lack of genuine ideas or sincerity? OR at least, is there no relationship between environmental pollution and the ongoing indiscriminate burning and bombing of petroleum products by operatives of the so-called ” Operations Delta Safe?
Mr. President basically, some other factors fueling the Niger Delta conflict are corruption engendered by successive government that you served since oil becomes the commonwealth of the nation Nigeria. What is wrong in president simply producing a copy of secondary school leaving certificate instead hiring 13 Senior Advocates of Nigeria to suppress the judiciary? Whilst you start the Ogoni clean up process; what is wrong in reviewing the Sir Henry Willinks Commission Report 1958? The Ogoni Bill of Rights, The Kaiama Declaration document of the Ijaw Youths Council, The General Alexander Ogomudia Committee Report, and The Leedum Mitee led Niger Delta Technical Committee Report?
Conclusively, we are not in the trenches for the sake of armed struggle, the people of Niger Delta; our forefathers have always resisted the colonization and exploitation of the land… Since antiquity even without weapons against all form of occupation army, as such we wonder how your desire for decisive military action is going to win this war in your four years term to end our legitimate objective of controlling our resources for posterity.
