Militant groups in the Niger Delta at the weekend rejected the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) as their chief negotiator with the Federal Government and issued an ultimatum to the presidency to name its negotiating team.

Ultimate Warriors, a militant group, which conveyed the position of other militant groups, gave President Muhammadu Buhari three weeks to name a high-powered government Dialogue Team, comprising members of the international community with an unambiguous mandate to parley with militants and other stakeholders to stop pipeline bombings.

The Niger Delta Revolutionary Crusaders (NDRC) also insisted that MEND was neither in the position to speak for Niger Deltans nor impose a negotiation team on the people because the group has taken sides with the Nigerian government against the Niger Delta.

Meanwhile , the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), the leading militant group in the region, has alleged that government security agencies were collaborating with some saboteurs and members of the defunct MEND to bomb oil pipelines, and thereafter, they apprehend innocent persons to impress their Commander-in-Chief and sabotage the genuine struggle.

In addition, the Ijaw People Development Initiative (IPDI) said President Buhari was nonchalantly surrendering the sovereignty of the country to multinational oil companies by affirming that they were dialoguing with militants on how to end the Niger Delta crisis.

The MEND Aaron Team 2 is led by Mr. Henry Odein Ajumogobia, SAN (Rivers – Team Leader) with HRH King Alfred Papapreye Diette-Spiff, Amayanabo of Twon-Brass (Bayelsa) as Deputy Team Leader & Representative of the Niger Delta Dialogue and Contact Group – NDDCG).

Others are Senator Florence Ita-Giwa (Cross River) representing representative of all aggrieved militant groups and communities from the Bakassi axis) and Mr. Ledum Mitee, Esq. (Rivers) Senator Adolphus Wabara (Abia) represents the oil-bearing communities in Abia and Imo states), High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo (Delta State), Mr. Ibanga Isine (Akwa Ibom) and Mr. Alfred Isename (Edo), while Mr. Timipa Jenkins Okponipere, Esq. (Bayelsa) is the secretary of Aaron Team II.

•Sourced from Independent. Photo shows Niger Delta militants.