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
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AFTER 37 days as unwilling guests of Niger Delta militants, the three remaining foreign oil workers out of the nine kidnapped on February 18 breathed the air of freedom on the night of March 26, 2006. It will indeed be an understatement to say that this has come as a welcome development and a big relief to all, especially the families of the former hostages. While their ordeal in captivity lasted, their experience was definitely one of excruciating uncertainty as their hope of coming out alive continued to hang in the balance each passing day.
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Lagos — Nothing has cast the Niger-Delta problem on the crust of international media than the entry of the Movement of the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND) into the fray.
Not even the years of mind-boggling blight from oil operations was able to draw such attention as the attack on oil facilities and hostage-taking. MEND, to a very large extent, has so far succeeded in raising the profile of the conflict. It is not likely that there is any investor, trader, consumer or chief executive of an oil company in any capital in the world, who will not factor in the trouble in the Niger-Delta as a problem right now. Also, if there is any area in which the militants have succeeded, it is in the power play. The Nigerian government would prefer to play down or ignore the depth of the crisis, but that is not the story out there. The international media says there is a rebel group pressing for sovereignty in the Niger-Delta, in which case it is co-incidental that oil is located in that terri tory.
Abuja — President Olusegun Obasanjo has convened a meeting of Leaders of Thought of the Niger Delta coastal states billed for Wednesday next week.
The President's decision to convene such a meeting follows the release of the remaining three oil workers Monday by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).
Lagos — Still counting the losses recorded from the crisis in the Niger Delta, which has already hit $1.4 billion (N180 billion), the Federal Government is set to unveil radical programmes for the development of the region, in a bid to end the specter of violent attacks on oil production facilities.
Lagos/Warri/Abuja — Militants operating in the creeks of the Niger Delta yesterday vowed
that resumption of production of over 600,000 barrels per day (bpd)
crude oil closed down in the wake of the crises in the region would not
be allowed to resume until the Federal Government meets their 10-point
demands.
Government troops will not attack militants in the Delta region as part of a deal struck by the state governor to release foreign hostages, the government has confirmed.
The release of three hostages at 4 am yesterday morning came after the Delta State governor, James Ibori, promised gunmen that troops would not pursue the rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). The government does not want to provoke attacks on the valuable oil extraction infrastructure, Information Minister Frank Mweke Jnr, said yesterday.
Warri — ALL the fears, anxieties and tension generated by the continued
holding of the three oil workers left with Ijaw youths evaporated at
2.55a.m yesterday when the trio stepped out of the creeks into freedom.
Cody Oswald, Russell Spell (both Americans) and John Hudspith had been
in captivity for 37 days, 27 days after the six others abducted with
them were released by the militants.
Warri — Armed militants in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta on Monday freed
three remaining foreign hostages held captive for five weeks, but vowed
to continue attacks on oil installations.
The hostages, two Americans and one Briton, were released to local
leaders of the main ethnic Ijaw group on Monday morning and handed over
to the Delta state governor James Ibori at dawn, the governor's
spokesman said.
Warri — IN SPITE of the reported agreement by Niger Delta militants to
release the three hostages in the next few days, there is still worry
in their camp that the Federal Government may launch an attack against
them after the release and that has raised a fresh anxiety in their
fold.
MILITARY authorities at the weekend, explained that the removal of
Brigadier General Elias Zamani, commander of the Joint Security Task
Force for the Niger Delta, 'Operation Restore Hope', was not as a
result of his failure to contain acts of hostage taking but a normal
routine posting.