AKANIMO SAMPSON

YAR'ADUA's RETURN: MILITANTS CALL FOR SOVEREIGN CONFAB
* Querry Deployment of Troops to Airport

THE handling of the return of Nigeria's ailing President, Mr. Umaru Yar'Adua, to Abuja in the early hours of Wednesday, has sparked off a renewed agitation for the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) in the Niger Delta with militants leading the call.

A news report by AkanimoReports quotes the Spokesperson for the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC), an insurgent network which comprises units of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the Reformed Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (R-NDPVF) and others, Cynthia Whyte, as saying on Wednesday that Yar' Adua has the right to return to his country any time he wishes.

''However, we must ask ourselves very crucial questions. Who gave the orders for troop deployment during the time of his arrival? Was the Acting President aware of this?'', the insurgent group querried.

Soldiers, according to them, were deployed to airports and key centers without the knowledge of the acting president, adding, ''we need to ask ourselves...who gave the orders for the postings and deployments?''

The militants said Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, should first find out those who took such decisions without his knowledge and then act accordingly

''This is a wake up call to the people of the Niger Delta, elites, members of the armed forces and all retired members of the armed forces.
It is clear that we do not belong together'', the JRC said.

Continuing, they added, ''we need to begin to talk about renegotiation the continued existence of this country.The events of the past few weeks have pointed without doubt that there is need for a renegotiation of the continued existence of the contraption called Nigeria''.

According to them, ''it has become necessary for all ethnic groups within the contraption called Nigeria to come together and decide on our continued existence.

''The fact that a dubious cabal can seat together and decide amidst this much heat in the polity to decide against giving a Southern Vice President the ability to act with full presidential powers shows that we do not belong together as a Nation.

''We are too divided to be one. That fact is uncontestable right now. We cannot continue to decieve ourselves any longer. The season of deceit is over''.

On President Yar'Adua's amnesty to repentant militants, they said, ''the post amnesty progress is a sham. The Presidential Amnesty Committee has been operating from a dubious template ridden with corruption and absolute lack of transparency''.

''For instance'', they went on, ''the Post Amnesty Committee Sub Commitee on Infrastructural Development was supposed to decide which projects to be executed and what Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) would be given the mandates to oversee the deployment of particular projects.

''In a dubious twist, N15 billion has been declared as allocated to Infrastructural Projects by MDAs without any input whatsoever by the Presidential Amnesty Subcommittees. Is this transparency? The mandate of the subcommittee was to advise in such a way that only projects that were really wanted by the people were delivered. The Godwin Abbe Committee is clearly a sham and an exercise in ridiculous deceit!''

On the alleged plot against Jonathan, they had this to say, ''we believe that Goodluck Jonathan is currently in the know about all those who are currently plotting against him. It is up to him to agree on what to do with them''.

Three months after leaving Nigeria to receive medical treatment for a heart condition, President Umaru Yar’Adua shocked the nation by returning home in the early hours of today. A patient at the King Faisal hospital in Jeddah for 92 days, Mr. Yar’Adua was finally removed from his bed on Tuesday and taken aboard an Abuja bound flight at about 2100 Saudi time.

Two planes, one of them an air ambulance, landed in the presidential wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Abuja within ten minutes of each other and it is believed that the president was on board the first one which landed at 0145 hours. ENDS