Daily Independent
24 March 2011
Since his appointment as the nation’s Minister of Defence, Adetokunbo Kayode has not hidden his aversion for violence and acts of those who perpetrate violence and disrupt the peace of the nation. He has had occasions to express his willingness to challenge every act capable of generating violence and compromising peace anywhere in
He restated this position recently when he played down on the latest threat of Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), to commence attacks against the Nigerian oil industry, and disrupt political meetings. Kayode assured Nigerians that government was on top of the situation.
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However, in his reaction to the ministers’ statement, Joseph Eva, who is President of Ijaw Monitoring Group (IMG) said the issue of MEND was not as simple as the minister was trying to paint it. He explained that what was at play in the camp of MEND at the moment was that the freedom fighting group is having cracks amongst them. He said that MEND is having divisions at the moment, and as such is not a single unit.
Speaking further, Eva explained that any of those groups could have issued the statement in the name of MEND. He gave this as a major reason why his group and some elders of the Niger Delta were still investigating to know which group issued the warning. He however warned that government should not rest on oars in finding lasting solutions to the problems of the Niger Delta because, according to him, if the warnings emanated from the groups with the real freedom fighters of the Niger Delta, that no government would be able to rein them in.
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