Niger Delta Solidarity

Gbaramatu Report – Report by Enviornmental Rights Action on the Bombings

“They bombed everywhere and everything. They don't have feelings at all. I was lucky to have my
children and husband alive. My neighbour lost his pregnant wife in the incidence. She was my friend too.” – Evelyn Emmanuel On May 14, 2009 at about noon, Gbaramatu Kingdom,Delta State, was in a festive mood. There had been an influx of guests into the community from far and near. They all came to witness the presentation of the Staff of Office to the Pere of Gbaramatu Kingdom, His Royal Majesty Ogie the third. The palace located in Oporoza was filled with well- wishers as the day also marked the King's one year anniversary. Suddenly, three low flying helicopters were seen approaching the Kindgom. The community people initially thought they were flying dignitaries to the ceremony or that they were part of the glamour for the ceremony. They were wrong. Dead wrong!

The three choppers were actually gunships of the Joint  Military Task Force, on a mission to mow down the Gbaramatu Kingdom. Suddenly the gunships started bombing everywhere, the King's palace inclusive. The JTF, ostensibly on a mission of searching  for militants and rescuing hostages, embarked on massive military assault on Gbaramatu Kingdom made up of 163 communities, villages and hamlets. The military deployed its most sophisticated weaponry against the hapless residents of the community

Sokari Ekine

THE NIGER DELTA SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN IS ORGANISING A PUBLIC DEMONSTRATION IN LONDON
AGAINST THE MASSACRES IN THE NIGER DELTA BY THE NIGERIAN ARMY

The people of the Niger Delta under the umbrella of the Niger Delta Solidarity campaign will be holding a public demonstration in London to protest against

the invasion and bombing of several Niger Delta communities by the Nigerian Military. These atrocious acts of brutality have led to an estimated death toll of over 1000 people and more than 20,0000 displaced people. Several towns and villages have been completely razed and many others are under occupation by the military. These military attacks are still continuing today.

Come join us and raise your voice against these massacres that are being committed against the oppressed people of the Niger Delta.

Date: Monday 1st June 2009 Venue: 10 Downing Street / Nigerian High commission Time: 12 Noon – 2pm (10 Downing Street)

2 – 3 pm (Nigerian High Commission,9 Northumberland Avenue, London. WC2N 5BX.)

We will be handing over a petition to the British Prime Minister, Mr. Gordon Brown.

Inemo Samiama

Coordinator Niger Delta Solidarity Campaign

For more information, Please contact;

Tel: 07944542320, Email: inemo@lineone.net

http://punditz.typepad.com/niger_delta_solidarity_gr/

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2009/01/03/purefoy.nigeria.gas.flare.cnn

.

http://adakaboro.org/crises/65-gbaramtumassacre/107-oporozabombed1

 Photo of displaced women and children. Refugees in their own land because of Nigerian and foreign greed for the oil in their land. Where is the justice?

Ken Saro Wiwa Jr writes in London Observer “Now at last it’s time for Shell to atone for my father’s death”

Ken Saro-Wiwa’s real “crime” was his audacity to
sensitise local and global public opinion to the ecological and human
rights abuses perpetrated by Shell and a ruthless military dictatorship
against the Ogoni people. The success of his campaign had mobilised our
community to say “No to Shell” and to demand compensation for years of
oil spills that had polluted our farms, streams and water sources. My
father called the world’s attention to the gas flares that had been
pumping toxic fumes into the Earth’s atmosphere for up to 24 hours a
day since oil was discovered on our lands in 1958. He accused Shell of
double standards, of racism and asked why a company that was rightly
proud of its efforts to preserve the environment in the west would deny
the Ogoni the same. Continue Reading ./blockquote>

Patrick Bond and Khadija Sharife “Shell on trial while Nigerians are slaughtered”

But at a time of worsening state massacres of
environmental justice activists in the Delta, a moment of reckoning
nears. In New York’s Southern District Court this Wednesday before
Judge Kimba Wood, Shell goes on trial for crimes against the Niger
Delta people and environment, which could lead to substantive
reparations payments.

The state’s most recent assault against the Delta left the villages
of Opuye, Okerenkoro, Kurutie and Oporoza (site of the new documentary
Sweet Crude – www.sweetcrudemovie.com ) burned to the ground in
mid-May, with hundreds of Ijaw people – both armed activists (called
‘militants’) and civilians – feared dead. Journalists are banned from
the area.

Nigerian Vanguard “WAR IN THE CREEKS : Chased from home,driven away from refugee camp *Horrifying tales of victims”

five days after the Joint Task Force (JTF) on the
Niger-Delta started the bombardment of Ijaw communities and militant
camps in the creeks of Gbaramatu kingdom, Warri South-West Local
Government Area, an Ijaw youth from Oporoza community, Mike Itima and
more than 20,000 thers are still trapped in the forests, where they ran
into on Friday, May 15, to avoid airborne missiles from invading
soldiers.

Hundreds of others, including women and children, who were brought
to the emergency refugee camp, Imageset up by council at the Ogbe-Ijoh
General Hospital, Ogbe-Ijoh on Sunday, May 17 were chased away by
soldiers, who alleged the doctors were training wounded militants. By
Tuesday, May 19 when Sunday Vanguard visited the hospital, it had been
abandoned by the entire medical personnel for fear of intimidation by
the JTF.

From the Daily Telegraph “Shell ‘played role in activist executions’”

AllAfrica - “Displaced out of aid workers reach”

Aid agencies are unable to access an area in the Niger
Delta where more than 2,000 people are believed to be hiding in the
bush after a military offensive against militants forced families to
flee their homes. Security forces have cordoned off the area as their
operation continues. “Our mandate is to provide relief to people in
distress,” Yushau Shuaib, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA)
spokesperson, said in a communiqué. “We have tried to get relief
materials into the creeks for those trapped there, but the military say
it [the aid effort] has to wait until the military operation is over.”

ALL NIGER DELTA SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN
MEETING ON SATURDAY 23 MAY 2009.

Agenda: The current military actions in the Niger Delta

We the people of the Niger Delta in the UK have agreed to come together under the umbrella of the Niger Delta Solidarity Campaign to work together towards creating awareness in the western world, especially in the UK, about the conflict in our homeland.

We wish to engage in a campaign to actively inform the media, parliamentarians, western governments and also
disseminate information to the general public about the atrocities being committed in our homeland by the Nigerian military authorities.

We owe it to our fathers, mothers and children at home to use ourprivileged position of living in the UK, far away from
the media black- out, oppression and military controls to bring the plight of our oppressed people to the attention of the world.

Together we can help to bring an immediate cessation of the ongoing military onslaught on our people, and contribute to positive
change and a peaceful resolution of the Niger Delta crisis.

Lets not forget that as well as the military activities; there is a propaganda war that is being waged against our people.
The federal government and it’s state organs are painting a picture to the world that the on going campaign is against criminals and militants, but we know that it is our fathers, mothers and children that are being massacred.

RESOLUTIONS

1.We have agreed to hold public demonstrations at the Nigerian high commission in London to protest against the current and on-going military onslaught against our people. Date, time and place will be communicated to you as soon as possible.

2. A petition will be sent to the United Nation,
British Prime

Minister, UK House of parliament, European Union office
in London and other international organizations.

3. We will be organizing a church service to pray for
the souls of all the innocent people that have lost their lives in our homeland
in the present and past military campaigns by the Nigerian military. Please
find details below:

DATE: SATURDAY 30TH MAY 2009

TIME: ALL TO BE SEATED BY 1.30 PM

SERVICE STARTS AT 2PM TO 3PM

REFRESHMENTS AT CHURC HALL FROM 3PM TO 4.30PM

ADDRESS:

PARISH CHURCH OF OUR LADY

54 LODGE ROAD

ST JOHN’S WOOD

LONDON NW8 8LA

LODGE ROAD IS BETWEEN PARK ROAD AND LISSON GROVE IN ST
JOHN’S WOOD

LODGE ROAD IS BESIDE LORDS CRICKET GROUND.

NEAREST UNDERGROUND IS ST JOHN’S WOOD STATION.

3. We intend to take out full-page colored advertisements in some UK newspapers to explain the perspective of the Niger
Delta people, subject to Niger Delta community members contributing the necessary resources for us to make this possible.

4. We wish to form alliances with all Niger Delta organizations, humanitarian organizations and all other similar
organizations that would be sympathetic to our cause.

5 We wish to explore the possibility of taking litigation against the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity that are
being committed against our people in the international courts.

We will be setting up the following committees to co-ordinate the affairs of the campaign.

1. A legal committee

2. A public relations/media committee

3. An information/Data collection Committee

4. A strategic planning committee

A provisional committee was set up to organize and supervise the implementation of the resolutions adopted.

We are calling on ALL sons and daughters of the Niger Delta region and all others who oppose the brutal and atrocious actions of the Nigerian authorities to join us in this campaign.  Let us put our differences to rest and come together for the common good of our shared heritage, people and land.

Another meeting will be held soon. The date, time and place will be communicated to you.

You are all called upon to reach out to all your friends, relatives

and other people from our region and anywhere in the world that you know, by email, phone or text messages, so that we can
effectively mobilize more people in this campaign.

Inemo Samiama

Co-ordinator for the Niger Delta Solidarity campaign

http://punditz.typepad.com/niger_delta_solidarity_gr/

When I set out to write a review of this weeks Nigerian blogs for Nigerians Talk,
I had it in my mind that I would write on the invasion and bombing of
towns and villages in Warri region of the Niger Delta. To be frank I
expected to read that were Nigerians outraged by this attack on their
fellow citizens by the Nigerian military especially since the Nigerian
mainstream media has been uncritical. Unfortunately there wasn’t as
much as I had hoped and hope is all too important in the struggle
against tyranny.

chidi opara reports has
the most posts on the Niger Delta generally but one in particular
stands out in which the writer claims that the PDP tried to recruit one
of the top militant leaders Mr. Government Ekpumupolo aka Tom Polo. The
whole story sounds very sinister with former disgraced Bayelsa State Governor of transvestite fame, Diepriye Alamesigha
as the contact man. What the story does suggest is that there are
communication channels between the militants, the oil companies and the
Nigerian military which on some levels seems rather too friendly for
purported enemies.

More sinister than the “chidi opara reports” story, is what we do know is happening in Delta State. Waffarian points
out the truth that many of us have always known – “Nigerian is not one”
and certainly the Niger Delta has always been at the extremities of
Nigerian consciousness. Waffarian also points out that there are now
refugees in Nigerian. Hmm excuse me but this is not new. There were /
are refugees from various inter religious and ethnic clashes, attacks
by the Nigerian military on other Niger Delta communities – Ogoni,
Isoko, Ijaw to name a few. And of course Biafra which leads me to a
post by Max Siollun’s Website
on the Biafran war, a subject which I think needs to be discussed far
more than it is. He describes it as a “no victor no vanquished where
Biafran disabled soldiers still remain the forgotten victims of
Nigeria’s gruesome past.

“Today our sun has risen; for the first time since 1970 when
the war ended we are seeing members of the Nigeria Defence in a great
number like this. Happily enough you have seen us you have seen where
we are quartered; by our right is the leprosy colony, in our front is
the Oji River General Hospital ; it mainly treats the leprosy patients.

As you can see, there is no government catering for us; we
only live on charity. As you come here today, we and members of our
family are rejoicing that at least, they’ll have something to eat. You
represent the federal government and we know through you our message
will get to the president.

Nigeria, What’s New
points out the promise President Yar’Adua made to the UN Human Rights
Council he would not attack the Delta communities because of the very
real possibility of loss of innocent lives. Another untruth – well a
bare faced lie actually. The military state has never considered loss
of innocent lives. On the contrary by far the majority of lives lost
over the past 20 years have been civilians.

As Grandiose Parlor
points out not all Niger Deltans have been adversely affected by
militarisation, at least not in a negative sense. He comments on the
“Statue of Liberty” which graces the entrance to the palace of
“Ogbeh-Gbarana III Aketekpe Agadagba Pere of Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri
South-West Council of Delta State.”

One wonders what position this traditional leader is taking over the
invasion of what is presumably his “domain”. In typical Nigerian
fashion he has erected a “colonial” iconic statue juxtaposed against
what is the last remnants of the past. Where on earth the money came
from to erect this hideous monstrosity. Has he spoken and what position
is this traditional leader taking over the invasion of what is
presumably his “domain”? When I saw the photo I was reminded of the
entrance to my Grandfathers compound in Abonnema – though that is
completely dilapidated – but still a reminder of the glorious past of a
once rich merchant of palm oil and grand chief of the town. 87 years
since my fathers birth the compound like the rest of the town is still
without electricity and running water – this is the truth of life
amongst the oil wells of Nigeria.

To round up this brief review of the Niger Delta my thoughts are
that instead of focusing on the militants lets look at the Nigerian
Military State and try and discern a more truthful perspective. What is
their record in the Niger Delta? Umuechem October/November 1990; Ilaje
community in 1998 (the case against Chevron which took place in December last year);
Oleh, Ozoro, and Olomoro towns in Isokoland in 1999; Ogoni between 1990
through to the judicial murder of the Ogoni 9 in November 1995; Kaiama
and Odi towns in January and November 1999; the rape of women by
soldiers in Choba (Ikwerre) in 1999; the attacks on communities in
Delta state by the Nigerian military on behalf of Chevron in 2002.

These attacks took place before militants took up arms at least on
the present scale. The rhetoric coming from the Nigerian military state
and its leaders including those in the Niger Delta states is that the
militants are a threat to the security and sustainability of Nigeria.
But if we are truthful we find that the danger actually comes from the
militarisation of Nigeria’s governance which is only thinly veiled by
the second civilian republic. Human rights abuses and collective
punishment together with the ongoing partnership between the military
state and multinational corporations are a threat to us all. Who knows
when it will be your community that is attacked with such wanton
display of power and guns.

Anyone who has ever had even a cursory encounter with Nigerian
security forces – military, police and MOPO (mobile police) will have
little problem in imagining the brutality unleashed against people and
property in Warri South West at this moment.

20 May 2009       

Nigeria: Unlawful killings/displaceme nt/access to medical care

Since 13 May 2009, thousands of villagers have been displaced and thousands more are trapped in the cross fire between the Joint Task Force (JTF), which is composed from troops of the army, navy, air force and the mobile police set up in 2004 to restore order in the Niger Delta and armed groupsin Delta State, South West Nigeria. The JTF attacks on the communities in the area, including the Okerenkoko and Oporoza communities,are continuing on a daily basis, reportedly because they believe the armed groups are hiding in the communities.

The JTF offensive began on 13 May after the JTF was reportedly attacked by armed groups in Delta State. The JTF have been conducting land and air strikes on communities across the Warri south and south-west local government areas where the Nigerian government believes the camps of the armed groups are located. Hundreds of people are feared dead.

On 15 May, using helicopters equipped with machine guns, the JTF attacked several communities of the Gbaramatu Kingdom, including Okerenkoko and Oporoza. In Oporoza, around 500 people had gathered for a yearly festival that was being celebrated in several communities of the Gbaramatu Kingdom. Exact casualty figures following the attacks are as yet unknown. According to reports received by Amnesty International, hundreds of bystanders, including women and children, are believed to have been killed and injured by the JTF, and by the armed groups, while shooting at the JTF.

The 20,000 people who live in the area of the attack are trapped there by the JTF's continuing operations. The main method of transportation for these communities is by boat; however, people attempting to travel by water are reportedly targeted by the JTF or members of the armed groups.

Thousands have fled their communities and are unable to return to their homes. Many houses in the communities have been set on fire and destroyed by the military. People are still in hiding in the forest, with no access to medical care and food.

Amnesty International is calling on the JTF and armed groups to use force only in a way that does not result in human right abuses, not to forcibly displace people, and ensure free access to those in need of medical care.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION 
Poverty, corruption and the presence of oil, arms and gangs, have made the Niger Delta a very volatile region. In the past years, armed groups and criminal gangs have explicitly sought to control resources, and have engaged in acts of violence. This has lead to an increase in violent confrontations between the armed groups and the JTF.

The JTF has been frequently accused of using excessive force when attacking armed groups and gangs and often bystanders from local communities were injured and killed. In August 2008, following an attack on the JTF by armed groups, at least 4 people were killed when the military raided the village of Agge, Bayelsea State. In August 2007, the JTF intervened  in a clash between two rival gangs in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, using helicopters and machine-guns and killing at least 32 gang members, members of the security forces and bystanders.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in English or your own language: 
-expressing concern about the number of people who have been killed, injured and displaced in the recent operations in Warri area of Delta State;
- calling on the Federal Government to ensure that the JTF uses force only in a way that does not result in human right abuses;
- calling on the Federal government not to forcibly displace people;
- calling on the Federal Government to carry out a thorough, independent and impartial investigation into violations committed by the JTF and the abuses committed by the armed groups.

APPEALS TO:

His Excellency Alhaji Umar Yar’Adua
President of the Republic of Nigeria
Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces
Office of the President
Aso Rock          
Abuja,
Federal Capital Territory
Nigeria
Tel: +234-9-2341010/ +234 9 523 5053 
Fax: +234-9-2341733/ +234 9 314 8793 
Salutation: Your Excellency

COPIES TO:

Commander of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta (Operation Restore Hope)
Brigadier General Sakin-Yaki Bello
Efferun Barracks
Warri, Delta State
Nigeria

Salutation: Dear Brigadier General,

Embassies: Copies to diplomatic representatives of Nigeria in your own country.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat

A letter written and jointly signed by over a dozen concerned NGOs to Mr. Luis Moreno Ocampo, of the Office of the Prosecutor in the International Criminal Court in the Hague, about the recent events in the Niger Delta.

International Criminal Court
Office of the Prosecutor
Mr. Luis Moreno Ocampo
Post Office Box 19519
2500 CM The Hague
The Netherlands
Also sent by email to otp.informationdesk@icc-cpi.int
Also sent by fax to +31 70 515 85 55
May 19, 2009

Dear Mr. Moreno Ocampo:

The organizations listed below write to draw your urgent attention to the
unfolding humanitarian crisis in Gbaramatu Kingdom in the Niger Delta
region of Nigeria. We request that the Office of the Prosecutor open an
immediate investigation into those responsible for what appears to be a
systematic and widespread campaign of violence against civilians by the
Armed Forces of the Nigerian government.

On Wednesday, May 13, 2009 the Nigerian military Joint Task Force (JTF)
commenced the land, water and aerial bombardment of a large area in
Gbaramatu Kingdom that includes the villages of Oporoza, Kurutie,
Kunukunuma, Kokodiagbene, Okerenkoko, Azama, Benikurukuru and
Ubefan, under the guise of attacking a MEND militant Camp. Residents of
the villages and those visiting for a festival on the day the bombing
began were forced to flee their homes and villages. They are hiding in the
bush and do not have adequate food or medical supplies. The JTF has not
allowed humanitarian aid groups or journalists into the area. As of today
the coordinated aerial and ground attacks by the JTF and mass starvation
continues. Reports suggest that thousands of innocent civilians are dead
already. Reports also suggest that this was a well planned attack with the
possible collusion of State government officials.

Together the human rights and environmental organizations listed below
urge the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor to use its power to investigate and
prosecute those responsible for these crimes against humanity, including
Brigadier General Sarkin Bello who is reportedly in command of the JTF’s
operations today. Questions regarding President Yar’Adua’s involvement
must also be investigated.

The killings in the Delta today can be traced back to similar massacres in
1990 in Umecheum, in Ogoni led by Major Gen Paul Okuntimo in the mid
1990’s, and the 1999 massacre in Odi under the command of Col
Agbabiaka. To-date no investigation of previous massacres has been
undertaken, although each was well documented by the international
NGO community, including Human Rights Watch.

The Nigerian military must be made aware that it cannot act with
impunity. We respectfully request your attention and investigation. Your
interest and involvement in this matter has the potential to help save
lives in the oil rich regions of the Niger Delta now and in the future.

Sincerely,

Imani Countess for TransAfrica Forum
Patrick Bond for the University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society
Environmental Justice Project
Sandy Cioffi for Sweet Crude
Bill Gallegos for Communities for a Better Environment
Jessica Lawrence for The Borneo Project
Laura Livoti for Justice in Nigeria Now
Danielle Mahonnes for the Center for Third World Organizing
Kirsten Moller for Global Exchange
Brant Olson for Rainforest Action Network
Roger Kim for Asian Pacific Environmental Network
Michelle Kinman for Crude Accountability
Steve Kretzmann for Oil Change International
John Wilner for CounterCorp
Emira Woods for Foreign Policy In Focus
Daphne Wysham for Sustainable Energy and Economy Network

2017 Mission Street 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94110
PHONE: 415 575 5521 FAX: 415 255 7498 URL: 

www.justiceinnigerianow.org

www.sweetcrudemovie.com/attacks

Posted by Inemo Samiama

Ijaw People’s Association of Great Britain & Ireland and
Bayelsa State Union of Great Britain & Ireland

20/5/09

Joint Press Statement

THE GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA AND ITS ACTS OF GENOCIDE & TERROR AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF THE NIGER DELTA

The Ijaw People’s Association and Bayelsa State Union, all of Great Britain and Ireland are greatly concerned about the reports reaching us that the Nigerian Armed Forces in the form of the Joint Task Force (JTF) for the Niger Delta is attacking and invading a number of towns and villages in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State Nigeria, from Wednesday 13 up till now, Thursday 21 May 2009. These towns and villages comprise of Oporoza and satellite villages of Gbaranmatu kingdom in the said local government area. We are greatly alarmed and shocked, because the attacks and invasion with the attendant destruction of lives and property were unprovoked, and seemed to have been planned for quite a while.

The JTF spoke-person issued a statement that “militants or oil thieves attacked their forward base and that the JTF was going after them and flushing out the said militants or oil thieves”; but we find this utterly unacceptable, and it is a deception to justify this premeditated terror campaign against defenceless communities in the Western Niger Delta, because of the oil beneath their feet.

The JTF needs to explain to the whole world why it needed to use jet fighters and helicopter gun-ships to flush out ‘oil thieves’ by bombing and mowed down innocent civilian villagers who had gathered at Oporoza for a traditional cultural event? It is clear that the Nigerian President ordered the JTF to commit these atrocities to the people of Gbaranmatu Kingdom in order to protect the vested interests in the military oil bunkering operations. The government of Nigeria has been consistent in its brutality of the people of the Niger Delta, which started with the Ogoni-land invasions, the invasion of Kaiama, the attack and complete destruction of Odi, the destructions of towns and villages in Kalabari kingdom in eastern Niger Delta, and now the obliteration of Oporoza and Gbaranmatu Kingdom.

CONTINUED DECEPTION

The Nigerian Government continues to deceive the whole World that the JTF is stationed in the Niger Delta to prevent crude oil theft and protect oil installations from Niger Delta militants. This is laughable, when in reality, it is clear that the JTF is stationed in the Niger Delta to protect the oil bunkering interests of federal government officials, former and present serving military officers and politicians connected to the current government. These are the real oil thieves. It is even more laughable that the federal government claim to be spending over 400 billion naira a year on security in the Niger Delta, when security has actually been taken away from the people by the JTF. It is universally known that there are some criminal elements that are involved in oil theft, but that is no reason for the annihilation of an entire already-suffering people who has nothing to do with the corrupt and bankrupt politics of the Nigerian Federation. Basically, these long-suffering people of Oporoza and Gbaranmatu kingdom are killed doubly. People should make President Musa Yar’Adua understand this sort of behaviour is not acceptable in civilised and democratic countries.

In order to justify its continued presence in the Niger Delta, the JTF periodically manufacture conflict scenarios in order to perpetrate hostilities. Delta State was enjoying a long period of relative peace and reconciliation and the Governor of Delta State had recently called upon the Nigerian Government to withdraw the JTF from the state, as the area was now peaceful. There was no independent confirmation that militants attacked the JTF, prior to this invasion, and no militant group has come forward to claim responsibility for the supposed attack on the JTF(apart from the JTF claim that e-mail messages received by it, is supposed to be from a militant source). The latest murderous act by the JTF has gone too far, and it is time to bring Mr Yar’Adua and the JTF to order.

Therefore, the Ijaw People’s Association of Great Britain and Ireland and the Bayelsa State Union of Great Britain and Ireland strongly and utterly condemn these outrageous actions of barbarism by President Yar’Adua and the JTF. This is a complete betrayal of trust by Mr Yar’Adua to find a permanent and lasting solution to the Niger Delta problems. It is clear that all along, the Yar’Adua Administration and successive Nigerian Governments have been deceiving the Nigerian people and the whole world as to their sincerity in resolving the issues in the Niger Delta.

We strongly condemn the deliberate and planned killing of innocent Nigerian civilians and the mass destruction of property by the JTF. We strongly condemn the criminal use of force by the Nigerian Armed Forces. Our thoughts are with the families of the many women, children and innocent people that have been killed by the Government of Nigeria. We believe that attacking and punishing whole communities because of a few criminals is the most barbaric and undemocratic method in controlling law and order. Mr Yar’adua should know that no country that aspire to be regarded as civilised and democratic, trains its army to kill its own people. The role of the army is to defence its country from external aggression.

We fear that these atrocities that have been committed by Mr Yar’Adua and his government would:-

• Further escalate hostilities in the region, as the destruction of Odi by Mr Obasanjo led to the current level of militancy;
• Further increase the instability in the region;

• Further alienate the people of the Niger Delta;

• Further impede Nigeria’s economic progress; and

• Make Nigeria a more hopeless and miserable country

We want a situation, where every single part of Nigeria is as developed as Western Europe and North America, because Nigeria can achieve that if the politicians gain sanity. We also believe that the Niger Delta should be treated specially and with respect (as other civilised countries do); as it is the bread basket of Nigeria and it is its people that face the dire consequences of negligent oil exploration practices of the oil companies in the Niger Delta. Thus, the current invasion and the ongoing killing and destruction of towns in the Niger Delta, is a direct attack on the development of Nigeria as a whole, because the consequences of these atrocities could be far reaching for Nigeria’s progress.

We therefore, call on every well-meaning Nigerian to condemn these atrocities that are perpetrated by Mr Yar’Adua and the Nigeria military. We want the good people of Nigeria and the international community to educate the President that proper governance of a country is more than sending tanks, bombs and bullets. True power comes when you have been able to provide to the Nigerian people constant electricity, clear water, good healthcare and good education. The truth is the Mr Yar’Adua has failed in his role as the Chief Provider and Protector of his people.

If it transpires that genocide or crimes against humanity was committed (as we are hearing), we will work rigorously towards mobilising the people of the civilised world to bring to the International Criminal Court, Mr Yar’Adua, military officers, ministers, advisers, politicians and any other persons that are involved in promoting, encouraging, facilitating, aiding or abetting the perpetration of these gruesome acts of barbarism. The 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crimes of Genocide is clear as indicated below:-
Article 1
The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.
Article 2
In the present Co
nvention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Article 3
The following acts shall be punishable:
(a) Genocide;
(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d ) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide.
Article 4
Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.
According to the UN Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, 1968, there is no time limitation on when criminal proceedings can be brought against the perpetrators of War Crime, Crimes Against Human and Crime of Genocide. The offices are committed under international law whether or not local law did not recognise the atrocities as offences. Genocide is Crimes Against Humanity. The Nigerian Government ratified this Convention on 1st December 1970.

We believe that Nigerian will never be prosperous economically or politically, with a president that is clueless in the effective management of his people and the economy. Vision 2020 is dead and buried.

May God bless the people of the Niger Delta, and may God bless the ordinary hard working good people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that are constantly been deceived and humiliated by crooked successive Nigerian governments.

Signed by:

Mr Benaebi Benatari
Secretary
Ijaw Peoples Association of Great Britain and Ireland
www.ijawland.com

Mr Ebiye Asuka
Secretary
Bayelsa State Union of Great Britain and Ireland
www.bayelsa.org.uk

Posted by Inemo Samiama