Members of the disbanded Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) have regrouped ahead of the 2019 general elections and have commenced intense mobilisation for the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. New Telegraph gathered that the mobilisation is being coordinated by an influential former top public officer from the Niger Delta, who once manned a multibillion naira agency.

The Niger Delta politician may likely be named Niger Delta Liaison Officer at PDP Presidential Campaign Council. This is as the ruling APC intensifies efforts to woo the South-East with a promise of returning the zone to mainstream politics if the Igbo vote for President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 general elections.

While it could not be confirmed if the leader of the disbanded MEND, Chief Government Ekpomupolo, otherwise known as Tompolo, is part of the regrouping and mobilisation, it was gathered that top commanders of the defunct MEND, popularly referred to as the “Big Five” are deeply involved. Members of the “Big Five” include Ateke Tom (now a traditional ruler in Rivers State), Farrah Dagogo, Victor Ben (Boyloaf), Joshua Macaiver and Bigbopere Ajube (Shoot at Sight). Ajube is said to be the one coordinating his colleagues.

The party, which flags off its campaign for the 2019 presidential election in Sokoto State today, noted that the North West bears heavy imprints of neglect by Buhari’s administration. A statement yesterday by the Director, Media & Publicity of PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Kola Ologbondiyan, said President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) cannot point to any key development project articulated and completed by the administration in the North-West in the last three and a half years, despite the huge resources it claims to have channelled to the zone.

• Excerpted from a New Telegraph report