John Togo gives fresh conditions for peace in N’Delta

Compass

22 March 2011

John Togo gives fresh conditions for peace in N’Delta

•Says ‘We’re not fighting Jonathan’

THE Niger Delta Liberation Force (NDLF), controlled by fugitive militant ‘warlord’, John Togo, yesterday gave the Federal Government a fresh condition for peace to reign in the troubled region.

He, however, declared that the militant group is not fighting President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, but that, in fact, it is prepared to offer services to the administration contrary to claims by the main militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which he said is not interested in the administration for its failure to address the Niger Delta question.

Togo said that the convocation of a post-amnesty conference, where stakeholders could deliberate on the oil revenue derivable from the Niger Delta, is the only panacea for peace in the region.

According to him, another condition on which the group could engage the Federal Government in dialogue is the unconditional release of MEND’s two sectional commanders, ‘General’ Obese and ‘General’ Noumokeme (a.k.a. Madman).

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The statement reads:

“NDLF is not fighting President Goodluck Jonathan’s presidential ambition. Jonathan should ignore any sycophant who comes to tell him that NDLF is sponsored by his political opponents to fight him.

“Nobody sponsors NDLF fighters to return to the creeks. NDLF has not received a token from any arm of the government nor the private sector or an individual to float (sic!) this struggle. We sold our properties and our survival is in the hand of God Almighty. That is the price we have to pay and total freedom is our goal.

“President Goodluck Jonathan should know that this fight is not about him. It was only coincidental (that he is an) Ijaw president from the South-South region.Former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua have both experienced this kind of crisis.

“He (Jonathan) should not be made to believe that NDLF is sponsored to frustrate his political ambition. Let us make it clear again to the general public that Jonathan is the choice of NDLF fighters and we will do everything humanly possible for his victory, when it comes where our services are necessary. But (Jonathan) should stop playing politics with the Niger Delta struggle by using proxies to deceive genuine freedom fighters and good people of Niger Delta.”