By Emma Amaize & Yemie Adeoye
LAGOS — THE Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta, MEND, has ordered an indefinite cessation of hostilities following the latest decision of the Federal Government to engage in serious and meaningful dialogue with the group and others towards achieving enduring peace in the Niger-Delta region.

Meanwhile, 15,000 militants who laid down their arms in the Federal Government’s amnesty programme have so far been registered but the number could rise at the end of documentation, Defence Minister, Maj.-Gen Godwin Abbe (rtd) said yesterday.

MEND declares ceasefire

MEND in an online statement by its spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, stated, “To encourage the process of dialogue between the government and the team that MEND has selected to negotiate its demands for a lasting peace in the Niger Delta region, an indefinite ceasefire has been ordered and takes effect from 0000Hrs, Sunday, October 25, 2009”.

The militant group had in September appointed a team of negotiators, known as the Aaron team, boasting in its rank eminent Nigerians including the former Chief of General Staff, Rear Admiral Mike Akhigbe (rtd); Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka and others.

According to MEND, “On Tuesday, October 20, 2009, the Federal Government of Nigeria expressed its readiness to engage in serious and meaningful dialogue with every group or individual towards achieving a lasting peace in the Niger Delta.

“This welcome shift in position conveyed to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) by Mr. Henry Okah after his meeting with President Umaru Yar’Adua on Monday, October 19, 2009 indicated the willingness of the government to negotiate with the MEND Aaron team”, it  said.

The group, however, asserted, “The Aaron Team has been modified with the exit of Ms. Annkio Briggs by mutual consent. She has been replaced as the group’s liaison with immediate effect by Mr. Amagbe Denzel Kentebe”.

A key demand from MEND is that local communities must benefit from the region’s oil wealth.
The ceasefire announcement came six days after President Umaru Yar’Adua met for the first time with MEND leader Henry Okah.

The presidency described last Monday’s talks as “fruitful”, and it emerged on the day of the meeting that the government plans to plough an extra 10 percent of the money it makes from Niger Delta oil back into the region.

Okah on Friday urged the rebels, who have shunned a recent government amnesty, to give dialogue a chance.

FG registers 15,000 ex-militants

Speaking to reporters in Lagos, General Abbe said “Although our projection based on initial assessment estimated the figures of all true militants as 17,000, the number we have now is 15,260.

“These figures cannot be categorical at this stage of the upsurge in the number of ex-militants since the end of the amnesty period. Some of the groups are yet to authenticate their lists,” he said.

He said “contacts are ongoing” to get those yet to lay down their arms after the expiration on October 4 of the 60-day amnesty.

On the view of the amnesty committee which he heads, the minister said: “we, the committee, have congratulated the militants. They are still great Nigerians, our president has also congratulated them as patriots and very courageous people.”

Answering a question on whether the Federal Government will discuss with the Aaron team put together by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND), he said; “who and who, is Aaron. Is that a Nigerian name? Who are the Aarons? If he is not a militant and he is not living in the creeks he cannot negotiate for his people, and that is the position of the Federal Government.

“We are already discussing with people who hid weapons, now they are the ones that are out. They have given us reasons why they went into the creeks and they are enlightened people that we talk to, and they have started expressing themselves and the Federal Government has started listening, but when you bring Nigerians who are not directly involved to come and start discussing they can’t solve the problem,” he added.