By Emma Amaize
Mr. Hendrick Opukeme, one of the youth leaders in the Niger-Delta that started what turned out to be the Niger-Delta struggle from the Warri crisis spoke to Saturday Vanguard on the dreaded Ijaw god of war, Egbesu and how it propelled militants during the suspended struggle.

What is Egbesu and what role did you play in re-awakening its soul?

Egbesu is the ancient war deity entrusted to the Ijaw ethnic nation by the Almighty God to defend ourselves in times of oppression and war.

That is why there is Egbesu in all the 64 Ijaw speaking communities and clans from Arogbo-Appoi in Ondo state to the territories and boundaries of the Ijaws in Eastern Ibeno in Akwa-Ibom state and in the core south of Federal Republic of Nigeria. A significant number of us played diverse roles in the re-awakening of Egbesu Institution between 1997 to the present day.

Militants in action

The local Warri crisis precipitated by our nearest neighbours was highly resisted through the institution of the supreme Egbesu Assembly. As at then, there was no weapon of any kind as we have today in the creeks and communities. What was available then was only the supreme deity, which fortified us against attacks from our neighbours.

The soul of Egbesu can only be re-awakened when there is war to defend ourselves. In view of this, mention must be made of the Terakiri Egbesu, Egbema Egbesu , Kolokuma Egbesu and Oromor Egbesu.

Have you been involved in armed struggle in the Niger-Delta in the past or are you to be classified as an intellectual militant?

What do you mean by an intellectual militant? There has been nothing like militancy from anywhere. What happened was that the war gods of the Ijaw nation propelled most of us into agitation for resource control, self determination and appropriate political space.

This struggle started from Warri axis and subsequently snowballed into the entire Niger Delta region, where Egbesu adherents from the Ijaw speaking states were divinely instigated and directed in the symbolic protests and characterizations that brought Federal attention to the plight of the Ijaw people and our neighbours in the Niger Delta. Not only I, but a generation of people volunteered themselves and confronted headlong the status quo.

The government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria knowing at all material times that the plight of the communities in the Niger Delta are purely economic and political issues declared our indignity a security risk because of the transnational oil corporations.

It was to defend ourselves and posterity that a group of young men, particularly from the Delta axis volunteered to resist the criminal appropriation of our resources. It was in the process of doing this that some of us are styled hoodlums, some militants, and some criminals tried to hijack the scene.

Recently, there was an attack on an AGIP oil facility in Bayelsa state and MEND claimed responsibility for it. Is it true that MEND has resumed hostilities in the Niger Delta?

It is not true that MEND has resumed hostility. The fact of the matter is that there is anxiety and high expectation from a section of the former militants of the Niger Delta Liberation Force, NDLF fame, who have not been appropriately, captured in the ongoing reintegration and rehabilitation programmes ongoing.

And also, there are elements within and outside the Niger Delta region whose business is the procurement and sale of arms to the willing tools in the Niger -Delta to continue their nefarious activities. Therefore, what happened was not actually MEND that struck but disgruntled and frustrated former members of the NDLF, operated by the late John Togo, who have not been disarmed.

You said it was not MEND that carried out the Agip bombing as the militant group claimed, what are your facts?

MEND was an institution put in place by the said volunteers above to prosecute and direct the agitation and activities in conjunction with the Supreme Egbesu deity. The fact has been that since after the Amnesty programme, the said movement had been disbanded and demobilized.

However, one of its commanders who felt aggrieved in certain aspects of the implementation of the Amnesty Programme returned to the creeks to continue where his colleagues left him.

In no distant time, he was consumed in the process. It was his lieutenants, who pushed by hunger and poverty are believed to be the masterminds of the attack of AGIP facility in Bayelsa State and not necessarily MEND.

Do you think the exit of Tompolo, Boyloaf, Farah Dagogo, Ateke Tom, Shoot at Sight, Deadly Underdogs, Ogunbos, others actually mean the death of MEND? 

Yes and no. Yes, in the sense that for now, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta stands demobilized and that is the truth about it all. No,  in the sense that if the key issues that brought about the Niger Delta agitation are not addressed through a Sovereign National Conference, SNC, then, similar organizations are likely to spring up in the future,  which will be more devastating and catastrophic to oil  majors and the Federal Government.

It took over 50 years for the Ijaw people to resist decades of poverty and economic strangulation brought upon us by our supposed Federal Government. It is on record that as far back as 1966, the late. Major Jasper Adaka Boro had declared the Niger Delta Peoples Republic, having the reason and knowledge that the Nigeria Government as it is, lacked the psychological drive, the political will and spiritual determination to address the fears expressed by the Ijaw peoples before, during and after political independence. Therefore, there is the need by the Ijaw nation to as a matter of urgency reassess ourselves and chart a progressive future in a truly and restructured Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Against the backdrop that Henry once accepted amnesty, do your blame his present ordeal in South Africa for which MEND had threatened hostilities  on hm or on the Federal Government for insisting that he should face trial in South Africa  for the October 1, 2010 bombing of Abuja .while his brother, Charles is standing trail in Nigeria?

Hendrick Opukeme is not Henry Okah. So direct such questions to the appropriate quarters.

So what is the way forward to avoid further attacks?

The arms and ammunition of the disbanded NDLF have not been mopped up by the Joint Task Force on the instructions of the President, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, whose authority and mandate the task force requires to act in this direction. Therefore, to avoid any untoward situation, this directive is long overdue so that the issue of militancy could be finally laid to rest.