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...Read the full article.

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I think the people that matchetted Timi are the same people that accosted our own Uche Nwora. :D (Not a laughing matter)

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=Exxcuzme;4294985221>I think the people that matchetted Timi are the same people that accosted our own Uche Nwora. :D (Not a laughing matter)

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Are u implying that these machete carrying, dynamite exploding and laptop stealing groups are bunch of armed robbers cos according to reports, armed robbers attacked Uche Nworah.

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If I were the victim, I'd better keep quiet and avoid dangerous places in future. His attacking the militants would even aggravate his problems. Militants have been known to go after people who have expressed outrage at them. The issue of civilian deaths is something one cannot avoid in militant uprising. The question of dialogue has been over flogged since Isaac Boro and Saro Wiwa. The fact is that Nigerian rulers are not interested in honest solutions to the crises. What with Yar'adua raising up the stake by budgeting for more arms to use to exterminate the people.

One thing I find curious is the fact that most of the victims were returning from the church on new year day. It reminds me of the case of one girl who was raped by five men on her way to a night vigil in Enugu early last year. It was thereafter the girl vowed never to set foot in a church again reasoning that if god exists, he could have prevented the ordeal she went through in the hands of rapists. Talk of learning the hard way.

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Amnesty For Tom Ateke
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kechukwu Amaechi, candourniche@independentngonline.com
Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:00:00



Leader of the notorious Niger Delta Vigilante Force (NDVF), Ateke Tom, and Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, are embroiled in a battle of wits.

Tom, who has caused so much havoc in Rivers State resulting in the death of many and destruction of property of innocent people worth billions of Naira, says he is tired of spilling innocent blood, or so he claims. He has, in recent times, told all those who care to listen that he is tired of fighting. Because he is neither an animal nor a fish that lives in the creeks, he wants to crawl out of the arroyo, which he, on his own volition, crawled into when he declared war on his state, Rivers, and the law abiding people residing there in.

But what makes Tom different from a wild animal? Is it not only wild animals that kill their kind for game? Hasn’t the self-acclaimed militant leader spilled as much human blood in Niger Delta in the name of militancy that would make a hyena green with envy?

Late December last year, Tom orchestrated the mayhem in Okrika, in which 40 people, among them soldiers, and officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) lost their lives. Public institutions were not spared. It is instructive that Tom is an indigene of Okrika.

While men of goodwill were yet to come to terms with such blood-chilling and senseless waste of human lives, Tom, through his surrogate, Richard Akinaka, claimed responsibility.

"Ateke Tom wishes to make it loud to the world that the killing of soldiers in Okrika, the burning of their patrol vans, the local council, the refinery, and the ships were carried out by him. His anger is predicated on the general lack of confidence on the presidential peace brokered between the Nigerian state and the Izon people," Akinaka, who claimed the Okrika fugitive is his uncle, said in a text message he sent to Daily Independent and other media houses shortly after the mayhem.

Tom claimed he decided to tread the ignoble path of wanton destruction because the government refused to honour the ceasefire pact it signed with militants, promising that the havoc was just a tip of the proverbial iceberg.

True to his promise, he again unleashed violence on the state on New Year day. While other Nigerians, and indeed the entire human race were reveling in the dawn of a new year and a new beginning, Tom and his co-travellers brought tears, sorrow and death to the doorstep of Port Harcourt residents. They attacked two police stations in Trans Amadi and Borokiri, shot dead four policemen and bombed the Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt, killing a security man.

Again, Ateke Tom unabashedly claimed responsibility. But unlike the reason he adduced for the December mayhem, which he predicated on the inability of the government to keep to the peace agreement, this time, he demanded the removal of Amaechi as condition for peace. But by so doing, he unwittingly exposed himself as a man who is being used by desperate political forces in the state to score cheap political points.

Is Ateke fighting to destabilize Amaechi’s government or to correct the historic injustice meted to the people of the Niger Delta? How could the removal of Amaechi be the solution to the injustice Tom claims to be fighting against? Most importantly, is there nothing contradictory in the fact that a man who claims to be fighting for the development of his marginalized region is doing so by destroying public property and killing the same people he claims to be protecting?

The New Year banditry came barely 24 hours after the curfew imposed on Rivers State was lifted by Governor Amaechi. If Ateke Tom meant well for his people, he could have jumped at the offer, an olive branch extended to the warring groups that have made Port Harcourt, the hitherto Garden City - a haven of peace - one of the most dangerous places to live in Nigeria.

Yet, few weeks after these unprovoked atrocities, Tom is seeking amnesty, again on his own terms. He claims to be tired of shedding innocent blood but he would not drop his guns. "I am giving everyone my word; I don’t even have the time to think about shooting, let alone killing anybody … There must be concrete plans on the ground assuring me and my boys of safety and amnesty before I lay down my arms," he says. With the guns, he thinks he can still negotiate from a position of strength. But he cannot be trusted, because he has proved over the years to be a serial liar.

Not so long ago, he also "renounced" violence together with some other militant leaders, promising to turn a new leaf. Though greatly wounded by his thuggery, many people were prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. But what did they get in return? He rewarded them with more violence.

It will be the height of naivety for Amaechi to be fooled by Tom’s avowals this time around. Truth be told, Ateke Tom has signed a pact with the devil for the very wrong reasons and every well-meaning Niger Deltan must support the governor in his quest to rid the region of cultists. Ateke Tom is a criminal and must be so treated. If he likes, he can remain in the creeks and continue unleashing mayhem on hapless people. But like every other fugitive, on the run from the long arms of the law, his days are numbered. No government worth its onions would succumb to his blackmail, for that is what his demand for amnesty amounts to.

There must be a conscious effort to separate freedom fighters from the band of criminals that straddle the creeks of Niger Delta.

And that is where the region’s leaders have failed woefully. Right before their very eyes, they have watched helplessly, as if bewitched, as the so-called insurgency for self-determination went awry. "Freedom fighters" now kidnap toddlers, and octogenarians for ransom, all in the name of "Niger Delta struggle."

If Tom genuinely wants peace, he must come out of hiding and hand himself over to the police. It is only after it has been proved that he has sufficiently purged himself of his evil ways that the state will decide what to do with him. And he can only do this when he has atoned for the crimes he has willfully committed against humanity. He must apologise to those whose relations he has wasted in orgies of violence all these years.

He has no choice. For him, the game is up. He can only run but not hide forever. Sooner than later, the long arm of the law will catch up with him. So, the sooner he realizes that he no longer holds the aces in this game, the better for him.

And Rivers State government must not negotiate from a position of weakness. If Ateke Tom wants amnesty, he can as well get it, but not on his terms and every well meaning Niger Deltan and indeed Nigerian must support Governor Rotimi Amaechi in his quest to rid Rivers State of cultists.

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I have always been of the opinion that the problem in Niger-delta is largely caused by there so called leaders. i was reading the newspaper the other day and read a comment made by one particular elder stateman in delta asking the government to start negotiating with known criminals is a politics that have gone too far, which as dangerous dimension and precedence.

I hope Gov Amaechi will maintain his stand that nobody is above the law or Government and not succumb to cheap blackmail by some so called leader who have little or nothing to contribute to the progress of the state, and are only relevant in the time of crisis they help to create and cannot even differentiate between a cold blooded criminal and a freedom fighter.

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Yar'Adua and Amaechi should not listen to people beating the drums of war. If Ateke Tom says he wants to drop his arms, let them give him a chance to redeem himself. Vowing that he must be brought to justice by all means will only escalate the conflict.

We thank God Timi Dakolo escaped instant death in the hands of the hoodlums. But like it was written at the back of the Mammy Wagon: Many have gone.