Abuja, August 05: Nigeria’s main armed group in the Niger Delta has said its disarmament cannot be bought, as a government amnesty for local fighters is to begin.
“When we choose to disarm, it will be done freely,” the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) said in an e-mail statement late on Tuesday.
The statement was referring to recent news reports which had implied that MEND would accept money in exchange for laying down its arms.
MEND added that it would disarm only when the Niger Delta has been emancipated from neglect and injustice.
The group also stressed that the clarification was made ‘to counter propagandists and rumor mongers’.
Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua in late June offered unconditional amnesty for all fighters who laid down their arms and embraced peace.
The opening of the government amnesty offer window runs from August 6 until October 4.
The group, which is yet to accept the offer, has said that it is already consulting with the presidential aide on the region, and that the outcome of the negotiations would determine its approach to the government’s offer.
MEND, which claims to be fighting for a larger share of the country’s fossil fuel riches for impoverished communities in the Niger Delta, last month declared a 60-day ceasefire in response to the amnesty offer.
Since launching its campaign of violence against the oil sector in early 2006, the Niger Delta fighters have admitted to the bombings of oil pipelines and abductions of foreign workers, reducing Nigeria’s oil production by one-fifth.
—–Agencies