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

10/12/2008

The president admitted in Kaduna last weekend that the Niger Delta crisis was giving his government nightmares. It is indeed a litany of nightmares, especially from the arrowhead of militant groups in the region, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND.

10/12/2008

Kaduna — The United States of America-based Niger Delta World Conference has commended recent moves aimed at ensuring peace in the crisis-thorn region. In particular, the congress lauded both President Umar Musa Yar'Adua for the commencement of his administration's plans to ensure peace in the region as well as to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta MEND and the Niger Delta Patriotic Force, for heeding the call for peace in the Niger Delta and for observing a ceasefire.

10/12/2008

There are high expectations as the 45-member Technical Committee on the Niger Delta begins work. THE coming into office of the Yar'Adua administration has undoubtedly raised the stake in the quest by successive administrations to tackle, in the most credible way, the lingering problems of underdevelopment, poverty, and recently violence, in the Niger Delta.

10/11/2008

Movement for Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND) has explained why Rivers State has remained the focus of its violent attacks. The state was the theatre of the five-day 'Oil war' declared by the group following what it alleged was attacks on its areas by the Joint Task Force (JTF) made up of the Nigerian armed forces, formed five years ago by the federal government to maintain peace in the violent but oil, rich region.

10/11/2008

WHEN Dr. Emmanuel Ewetan Uduaghan became the Governor of Delta State, last year, he was accepted with a "let's us watch and see attitude" by some Ijaw militants, who thought that an Itsekiri man would continue to oppress and not accommodate them in the politics of the state.

10/10/2008

SOLICITOR to Henry Okah, the assumed leader of the Movement for Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND), who is standing secret trial for treasonable felony, Mr Femi Falana has written the Niger-Delta Technical Committee, headed by Mr. Ledum Mitee, urging it to make a strong case for the unconditional release of Okah to afford him the opportunity to join other Nigerians in the restoration of law and order in the region.

10/10/2008

A Coalition of political stakeholders in the country met in Lagos this week to canvass for the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference to address the myriad of problems facing the nation's polity. After 48 years of Nigeria's political independence, stakeholders in the political system are concerned by the enormous burden before the wobbling giant. Apparently persuaded by the need to change this present circumstance, a coalition of political stakeholders met in the 'Center of Excellence' Tuesday, to proffer solutions to the nation's socio-economic and political challenges. Apart from unanimously opposing the current move by the National Assembly to review the 1999 Constitution, they all in unison called for a revolution, which they said would put Nigeria on the fast track of growth and development.

10/08/2008

opinion In his famous book, "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa", Guyana's Walter Rodney described the trans-Atlantic slave trade which lasted for over 500 years (from 14th to 19th century) as the "rape of Africa" due to its devastating socio-cultural, human, political, spiritual and economic effects on African communities.

10/08/2008

Lagos — A coalition of political stakeholders in Nigeria, yesterday opposed the planned review of the 1999 Constitution by the National Assembly and called for a revolution which it said would bring about change. They also said the present move by the members of the National Assembly to review the 1999 Constitution was fraudulent and unconstitutional as the legislators were only empowered having been elected to make legislations and not to give Nigerians a new Constitution.

10/06/2008

Lagos — Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said yesterday that it had released about 19 oil workers abducted in September but was still holding two British and a Ukrainian. "The Nigerian hostages rescued from pirates by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) have been released in Rivers State.