MEND Nigeria-Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta-MEND-Official News Site -tracking News, Articles, Interviews and Opinions, related to MEND- from 1999 to Present

01/30/2006

analysis Lagos — Since the beginning of this month, insurgency and militancy in the Niger Delta have reached a new level, raising concerns over the fate of the polity and economy which depend on the oil-rich area for sustenance as well as grave implications for national stability.

01/30/2006

Lagos — The Movement for the Emancipation of the People of the Niger Delta (MEND), the militia group in the middle of the hostage saga, said last night that the four expatriates were abducted to make a statement on the will of the people of Niger Delta to challenge and revolt against any institution perceived to short-change the legacies of the Izonchild.

01/30/2006

Port Harcourt — Bayelsa State Governor, Goodluck Jonathan, has said the conditions fulfilled by the Federal Government to secure the release of the four hostages who have spent nearly one month in captivity are "classified for now".

01/29/2006

Lagos/Warri/Yenagoa — There were strong indications last night that four oil workers in the Niger Delta taken hostage about two weeks ago, by a group called Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), would be released to the Bayelsa Government.

01/29/2006

EIGHTEEN days after they were taken hostage by militants in the Niger-Delta, the fate of the four expatriate oil workers appeared uncertain, yesterday, as their captors said they had no intention of releasing them and threatened more could be captured soon.

01/29/2006

analysis Lagos — John Iwori writes on the attack on the premises of Agip against the backdrop of the rising tension in the Niger Delta occasioned by the kidnapping of four foreign nationals

01/28/2006

GENERALLY, the expectation is that the militia group, which abducted four foreign oil workers, including an American, Pat Cendey and a Briton, Nigel Markson from an oil vessel, off the Atlantic Ocean in Bayelsa state, January 11, should have set them free by now after collecting a negotaited ransom, but surprisingly this time around, they are still being held captive at an unknown hideout by their captors, who claimed to be members of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND).

01/27/2006

Lagos — President Olusegun Ob-asanjo yesterday in Da-vos, Switzerland attributed the violence in the Niger Delta to activities of local terrorists. He, however, assured the international community that the Federal Government was equal to the task of securing the safety of lives and property of citizens and foreigners in the troubled region.

01/27/2006

Warri — Foreign oil companies accustomed to high tension in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta are being forced to grapple with a new level of violence one industry official called "shocking." In the past two decades, the multinational corporations producing Nigeria's oil in the impoverished southern region have grown used to disruptions caused by protests or sabotage by locals who feel dispossessed of their oil wealth by the central government.

01/26/2006

column Lagos — Nigeria's political establishment may be pre-occupied with permutations about power in the near future. But the concern in the business community and every other place is the survival of the entity which those posturing for power will govern. The reason for that apprehension is the state of Nigeria's internal security which is being impeached by latent consequences of unresolved contradictions in the polity. The matter, which though played down in the beltways of Aso Rock, is acknowledged in private as so dire, to warrant a marching order by the President to the Inspector-General of Police, Sunday Ehindero and his men.