New Niger Delta Militant Group Emerges, Issues 7-day Ultimatum

• Demands release of Kanu, Dasuki
• We are not militants- Tompolo’s monarch

Emmanuel Addeh in Yenagoa

The Federal Government now has a new group of militants to contend with, following the emergence of the Red Egbesu Water Lions, which has vowed to team up with the Niger Delta Avengers in ensuring zero production of oil and gas in the region.

But it wasn’t clear as at Wednesday whether it was a resurrection of the Egbesu Mightier Fraternity Of Izon (Ijaw) Land and The Water Lion, a group which became prominent five years ago when its members threatened to eject people of northern origin from the region when the Boko Haram sect started attacking Christians in the North-East.

In a statement by its Creek Network Coordinator, “General” Torunanawei Latei, on Wednesday, the new militant group vowed to work with the Niger Delta Avengers and Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, to ensure that all their demands were met in the next seven days.

Among others, the group demanded the immediate release of Nnamdi Kanu, the IPOB leader and the discharge of former National Security Adviser, NSA, Sambo Dasuki from prison custody.

It also urged President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately direct the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to defreeze the bank accounts of ex-militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo.

The Red Egbesu Water Lions, said to be an Ijaw group, threatened to shut down all oil exploration activities in the Niger Delta at the expiration of the ultimatum if the president ignores the group’s demands.

As part of its requests which must be met in the next one week, the group called for the “unconditional and immediate payment to victims of the Bonga Oil Spill and Chevron gas explosion in Koluama, Bayelsa state”.

While decrying the alleged lawlessness of the Buhari-led federal government, the Ijaw group argued that the government was becoming notorious for deliberate disobedience to court orders.

“It is extremely important to note that the engine room of the national interest is the executive obedience to court orders, protection and preservation of citizens’ constitutional liberties.

‘’Justification of executive disobedience to court orders as a protection of national interest is abominable.

“This is a deliberate ploy to bend the law and suspend the 1999 Constitution. We ask, does President Muhammadu Buhari have any legal capacity to declare anyone as a criminal? Disobedience to court orders is an act of executive rascality in the country,” the group contended.

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