By Emma Arubi
WARRI — A MEMBER of the Delta State Waterways Security Committee, Omolubi Newuwumi, has lambasted security operatives in the country for their failures to look beyond the surface in matters of national security in the wake of the twin bomb, which rocked the independence day celebration in Abuja.

The Niger Delta youth activist, who was reacting to the ugly incident in Warri, Delta State, laid the blame on the doorsteps of the security operatives and the Federal Government’s failure to recognise that the Movement for the Emancipation for Niger Delta, MEND, had grown above what the government thought it was before.

He said most of the so- call ‘militant generals’, who government patronise and pamper with mouth watering contracts as part of ways to pacify them in the amnesty programme are just the foot soldiers to MEND, which today has become a larger group, which has joined forces with some other armed groups  spreading  to most parts of the country.

According to him, “I think the real agitators of MEND have not surrendered their arms during the first phase of the amnesty and these agitators have a common understanding with other agitators and they are bent on fomenting great crisis against the country.”

Omolubi said it was not strange to him as an Itsekiri man, who had been in the forefront for the Niger Delta struggle as he had earlier raised an alarm, when he said that most of the militants, who surrendered their arms during the first stage of the amnesty were not the real men that fought the battle for the region but were mere foot soldiers.

He berated the Federal Government for not taking the Niger Delta issue more seriously, accusing them of paying lip service to the development of the region and its impoverished people.

Saying that security in the country was too porous, he noted that in the wake of the hand-over of weapons, he cried out to security agencies to as a matter of urgency, seriously look into the way and manner the sophisticated, dangerous and variety of weapons were acquired.

He said, “When I look at the dangerous weapons in the hands of these Ijaw militants, it tells me that this struggle has gone beyond the issue of bringing development to the people of the Niger Delta people, it tells me that it has shifted from the original struggle spearheaded by great people like Saro_Wiwa, Adaka Boro and others.

“If the federal government has look beyond the surface, it would not have surprised them that MEND still exist after the laying down of weapon, it goes to prove my point in one of the interviews that MEND is bigger than what the federal government think, they have connection and outside influence with other terrorist groups outside the country”.

“I think their main agenda is to divide this country, and things are getting worse in other zones of the country when the federal government encourages violent militants leaders with mouth watering contract and physical cash in the name of amnesty, this huge attraction make it possible for MEND to recruit members from other zones.”

“For the avoidance of doubt, the bomb blast that occurred in Abuja, about half a kilometer to the venue of the independence anniversary was the same kinds of bomb, the same way of disposal, the same pattern of the bomb that happened in Warri, Delta state during the amnesty talk but where did the investigation ended up? he querried.