There Will Be Heavy War In Nigeria If Jonathan Don't Win In 2015 ––Asari Dokubo

These are not the best of times for Governor Rotimi Amaechi. Leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Asari Dokubo, has described him as a traitor that would be dealt with.

According to the ex-militant leader, since the governor joined forces with the North to work against President Goodluck Jonathan, he has betrayed the people of the Niger Delta. He said the 2015 general elections would “define and decide” the existence of Nigeria...

Dokubo-Asari, who spoke with journalists on Friday in Abuja, on Jonathan-Amaechi rift among other issues, said “Rotimi Amaechi has been making disparaging statements against the person of President Goodluck Jonathan. He went to Kano State and declared there that he would contest 2015 presidential election as a running mate to a northern aspirant. He is free to do so, but the South-South will not allow traitors among us.

“If Amaechi has singled himself out as a traitor, he will be treated as a traitor; there is nothing anybody can do about it. Now that we have come out of slavery, nobody can take us back into slavery, it is not possible. If they like, let them ‘settle him’ and Goodluck, but we, the people of the Niger Delta, will not ‘settle’ and allow a traitor in our midst.”

On the 2015 presidential election, Dokubo-Asari said: “I want to say that there will be no peace, not only in the Niger Delta, but everywhere, if Goodluck Jonathan is not the president by 2015, except God takes his life, which we do not pray for.

“Jonathan has uninterrupted eight years of two terms to be president, according to the Nigeria constitution. We must have our uninterrupted eight years of two tenures. I am not in support of any amendment to the constitution that will reduce the eight years of two tenures that Jonathan is expected to be president of Nigeria.”

We Will Start Retaliating Against Mosques and Muslims - MEND

Nigeria’s Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said it will start a bombing campaign against mosques and Islamic institutions, a week after the rebel group said it killed 15 security personnel in the southern oil-producing Bayelsa state.

“The bombings of mosques, haj camps, Islamic institutions, large congregations in Islamic events and assassinations of clerics that propagate doctrines of hate will form the core mission of this crusade,” MEND spokesman Jomo Gbomo said in an e-mailed statement today. The campaign, codenamed “Barbarossa,” will start May 31, it said.

MEND may consider a cease-fire if the Christian Association of Nigeria, the Catholic Church and the group’s suspected leader Henry Okah intervene, according to the statement. The threat comes as the government of President Goodluck Jonathan battles Islamist militants in the mainly Muslim north and the capital, Abuja, in which hundreds of people have died since 2009.

MEND, the main rebel group in the the area, destroyed a Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) oil well in Nembe in southern Bayelsa state yesterday as part of an operation it calls “Hurricane Exodus,” Gbomo said.

Precious Okolobo, a Lagos-based spokesman for Shell’s Nigerian unit, said he couldn’t confirm the attack when contacted by phone today.
Claimed Attack

MEND said April 3 it would resume attacks in Africa’s largest oil producer after Okah was sentenced last month to 24 years in prison in South Africa. He was found guilty of 13 counts of terrorism, including a bombing claimed by MEND in which 12 people died in Abuja on Oct. 1, 2010.

On April 10, Nigerian authorities recovered 10 bodies of policemen killed four days earlier in an attack on a boat by gunmen in the oil-rich Niger River delta, Bayelsa state Police Commissioner Kingsley Omire said.

Three policemen and the boat driver jumped in the river in the southern state when gunmen opened fire and were later rescued, Omire said. The attack was claimed by MEND, which said it killed all 15 people aboard.

Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), Chevron Corp. (CVX), Total SA and Eni SpA (ENI) run joint ventures with state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. that pump most of the country’s oil. Nigeria depends on crude exports for more than 95 percent of foreign income and 80 percent of government revenue, according to the Petroleum Ministry.

While Okah denies being a leader of MEND, he has said he commands the support of many armed factions in Nigeria’s oil region.

Attacks including kidnappings and bombing of oil installations by groups including MEND cut more than 28 percent of Nigeria’s oil output between 2006 and 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The violence declined after thousands of fighters accepted a government amnesty offer in 2009 and disarmed.