* ‘President ignored Aaron Team’

By Emma Amaize

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, which claimed responsibility for the Abuja bomb blasts, may have struck to protest what it perceived as disregard for its leaders by President Goodluck Jonathan and purported hijack of the Federal Government’s post-amnesty programme by some people close to the president, according to a source.

Despite the reasons adduced by MEND for the explosions, which it described as a “symbolic attack”, ex-militant leaders in the Niger-Delta have resolved to dump Henry Okah, who is currently in prison custody in South-Africa over the October 1 explosions.

A MEND source, who does not want to be named, said: “The whole problem was as a result of government’s insensitivity to the matters on ground. They know the importance and role of Henry Okah in the Niger-Delta peace process but the president chose to ignore him. He was listening to some cronies and few ex-militant leaders who have access to him and opted to chase shadows than tackle the matters headlong.

“He shut Okah out of Aso Villa, Abuja because he was taking advice from those who cannot guarantee him protection and you can see the consequences of his ill-motivated steps. The late President Umaru Yar’Adua met with the MEND’s Aaron Team, led by the former Chief of General Staff, Rear Admiral Mike Okhai Akhigbe, rtd, who is a Niger-Deltan, with Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, as an observer before he died, and promised to sustain dialogue on the way forward with the team.

“President Jonathan is from the Niger-Delta. He had met Henry Okah in South-Africa in 2007 as part of his brief from the late Yar’Adua on the Niger-Delta peace process. He knows that a team of eminent Nigerians, led by Rear Admiral Akhigbe, was put together by MEND to discuss the issues at stake. Okah is a member of the Aaron Team. Why did he not deem it necessary since then to continue dialogue with the group since he took over from Yar’Adua? Why did he not sustain the dialogue? Is he not aware that Yar’Adua promised to continue discussions with the Aaron team? Who advised him otherwise and what is the purpose? These are some of the questions.”