FG-MEND talks monologue not dialogue with militants – N’Delta Avangers

The Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, indicated on Wednesday that the supposed Federal Government talks with the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, which both claimed to be dialogue with Niger Delta militants, was simply a monologue.

Avengers in an interview reechoed that MEND does not represent militants in the region and those promoting it were APC chieftains in the region, including a former governors and a group of ex-militant leaders with some northern power brokers looking for relevance and appointment from government.

It spoke just as former Minister of Police Affairs, Alaowei Brodrick Bozimo, said that Ijaw national leader, Chief Edwin Clark, never opined at a consultative meeting of the Ijaw leaders, weekend, in Warri, Delta state, that any discussion with militants without the involvement of Niger Delta elders was a nullity.

“What Clark said is that the Federal Government should include Niger Delta elders and leaders in its dialogue with militants in order to achieve a meaningful result. I was there at the meeting, he said there should dialogue but it should be done with the appropriate persons,” he said.In spite of Bozimo’s clarification, a group, Voice Delta, opposed to the violent agitation of NDA, declared that MEND was constructively engaging government and slammed Chief Clark and his group for their insistence that discussion with MEND was unacceptable.