PDP CRISIS: NIGER DELTA MILITANTS DEMAND SOVEREIGN NATIONAL CONFAB, THREATEN SECESSION

Pointblanknews.com has it that, current political crisis in Nigeria, took a course for the worse on Wednesday, with armed youths of the Niger Delta, the country’s main oil and gas basin, unveiling their pre-conditions for President Goodluck Jonathan, bidding a retreat from his 2015 re-election ambition.

This is coming as there are growing fears in some security circles that political forces from Northern Nigeria seeking to topple the Jonathan administration, could fuel a more deadly Boko Haram, an Islamic terrorist group, as their political army.

While this possibility is causing concern in the security circles, the obviously irked Coalition for Militant Action in the Niger Delta (COMA), an insurgent network, has noted with great interest, the alleged plot by a renegade group of Northern political leaders to subvert the administration of Jonathan.

”We have also noted with dismay the activities of Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State, who in a rabid attempt to discredit and disrespect the Presidency has suddenly become a pawn in the chessboard of a power hungry and selfish Northern political bloc who believe that they were born to rule”, the insurgent group said.

In a wired statement to AkanimoReports, COMA Spokesperson, Alaye Teme, said the central command of the insurgent network is of the view that it is unfortunate that a governor of Rivers State, a Niger Delta state will have the temerity to use the resources of the oil region to undermine a Presidency led by a son of the Niger Delta.

”This is a sacrilege that must never be forgotten or forgiven”, the militant group said, adding, ”appropriate measures will therefore be taken in due course. Certain lessons will have to be taught to a few”.

According to them, ”in line with our mandate not to dwell on the nauseous politics of the now, the Central Command of COMA has decided therein that if President Jonathan decides not to run for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2015, then we make the following demands:

He must as a matter of urgency, convene a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) so that the various nationalities that were forcefully conscripted into the Nigerian State (by the imperialist Britain) will be given an opportunity to renegotiate their co-existence within the enterprise called Nigeria.

”For decades, the Niger Delta has stayed with Northern Nigeria in its pursuit of political leadership. If the ungrateful power hungry bloc in Northern Nigeria cannot afford to stand with the Niger Delta for four more years, then our people must be allowed to peacefully decide if we will like to remain in this contraption called Nigeria”.

They said the convocation of the conference being demanded ”must be done in the next six months. This is our solemn demand. This demand is final”.

With this development, it is most likely that Nigeria’s oil region may again become a theatre of low-intensity war popularly known in the local parlance as ”Oil War”. If that happens, it will be because of the crisis rocking the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that was heightened last week by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, with a formation of a splinter group, New PDP.