NIGER DELTA: NEW MILITANT GROUP SEEKS OKAH's RELEASE, THREATENS ATTACKS

Akinamo Reports

8 March 2012

NIGER DELTA: NEW MILITANT GROUP SEEKS OKAH's RELEASE, THREATENS ATTACKS

A RELATIVELY new militant group has sprouted out in the Niger Delta, Nigeria's main oil and gas region. The group which is made up of unrepentant insurgents, are out to press for the release of Henry Okah, a leading militant leader who galvanised the dreaded Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).

Okah is currently standing trial in South Africa. The new group, Niger Delta Liberation Movement (NDLM), which has claimed responsibility for oil pipeline explosions in Bayelsa State, President Goodluck Jonathan's home state, said they will take on oil facilities in the oil region if the Federal Government fails to initiate moves with South Africa to free Okah.

Their demand is however, coming at a time Nigeria is locked in a seeming bitter diplomatic conflict with South Africa.

Spokesperson of the insurgents, Opuama Anderson, told AkanimoReports in an online statement on Thursday, ''we are responsible for the recent oil pipeline explotions in Bayelsa, and we are ready to do more if the Federal Government refuses to meet out demands''.

Anderson said they are demanding for free health care for all Niger Deal Indigines, and provision of free education from primary to university level in the oil and gas region