Militants: Niger Delta Peace Initiative 'Ll Fail

The Joint Revolutionary Council of the rebel groups in the Niger Delta, Nigeria's main oil and gas region, say the current peace initiative by the N igerian government will not succeed.

Spokesperson for the militants, Cyhthia Whyte, said in a wire statement to our correspondent on Monday, ''we wish to condemn in full terms the set-up of the Peace and Conflict Resolution Committee by Goodluck Jonathan (Nigeria's Vice President) and his cohorts''.

Jonathan, according to them, does not really understand the dynamics of the current unrest in the Niger Delta and has therefore fallen on the path of past regimes by trivializing and politicizing the Niger Delta question.

''For too long now, successive governments of the Nigerian state has exploited the Nigerian Delta question and used it as an opportunity for grandstanding and double talk. It is unfortunate that Goodluck Jonathan is now revisiting the way of his masters'', they said.

Continuing, they added, ''we hereby demand an immediate dissolution of this committee. It is irrelevant, froth with incompetence and is doomed to fail. We cannot be party to such grim wastage of badly needed funds and show of incompetence.

The people of the Ijaw and Niger Delta territory have seen one too many committees whose ability to create solutions remains at zero. This is not the time for vain talk talk. It is time to get to work and give to the people that which belong to them''.

The spokesperson claimed that the armed militia cells are demanding that any attempt at a true resolution of the Niger Delta question must be bottom-up, strategically driven and consensus defined, pointing out that any half hazard process will not only destroy our attempt at keeping the peace but will further divide the ranks and step up insurgencies.

However, in line with their decision to ensure the improvement of the quality of lives of their people, they said, ''we have long begun series of negotiations facilitated by the leadership of the Ijaw National Congress and some other Ijaw and Niger Delta leaders. These negotiations have produced an interim demand that should be pursued on the short and long term. We believe that the President of the Nigerian state is in the know about the fullness of these demands which also includes the involvement of a third party arbiter in next level negotiations''.

ENDS

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