By Simon Ebegbulem
BENIN—THE Warri Ijaw Peace Monitoring Group, WIPMG, a socio-cultural group in the Niger Delta, yesterday, said that the persistent allegations against leaders of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, as regards the recent Abuja bomb blasts, was an attempt by the perpetrators of the crime to divert the attention of security agents.

The group warned that some of the comments which it described as incisive, are capable of causing fresh crisis between the Ijaw and Itsekiri in Warri.

While reacting to a statement which accused MEND of perpetrating the recent bomb blast in Abuja, even after MEND had denied its involvement in the mayhem, the group also condemned what they described as the persistent attack on the person of President Goodluck Jonathan and the Ijaw through several publications which are untrue.

A statement signed by the Chairman of the group, made available to Vanguard in Benin City, stressed that the comments are capable of sparking off another round of crisis in Warri, warning that the Ijaw of Warri will no longer tolerate lies being told against the President and the leaders of the MEND.

“So we are calling on security agents to investigate people who are professional rumour mongers so as to nip any impending crisis in the bud. We are saying this because even after MEND had come up to dissociate itself from the bomb blast, some people who feel that they are owners of this country are still accusing our Ijaw sons of a crime they know nothing about.

They should be investigated because they may as well be involved and are now accusing MEND so as to divert the attention of security agents,” it stated.

The statement added that, “The reason for the 1997 crisis in Warri was that the Ijaw were fighting a just cause because they said they would not allow the Itsekiri treat them as second class citizens in their own land. We want to say again that the Ijaw will not fold their arms and allow these campaigns of calumny against Mr President and MEND on the recent bomb blast in Abuja.

“Let us always learn to tell the truth at all times and not to be telling lies in the name of playing politics. All they have been saying against Mr President are tissues of lies.”