Group warns of imminent hostilities by ex-militants

Posted by admin Headlines, Niger Delta Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

A group, the Foundation for Ethnic Harmony in Nigeria, has condemned the post-election violence in some parts of the North, saying it is an invitation to the Niger Delta ex-militants to resume hostilities.

The group said it was disheartening that while the local and international observers had commended the conduct of free and fair presidential election in the country, a set of disgruntled politicians were busy whipping up ethnic and religious sentiments.

In a statement in Calabar issued by the National Chairman of Foundation for Ethnic Harmony in Nigeria, Mr. Allen Onyema, the group said the violent riots in parts of the North were inadvertently an invitation to the transformed Niger Delta militants to resume violent hostilities- a situation that may spell doom for the nation.

Onyema revealed that since the outbreak of the violence, FEHN has been inundated with calls from the ex-militants who are worried that “the North does not want a Niger Delta President for Nigeria” and “would do everything to truncate it.

“The rioters and their sponsors should read the mood of the country and not play into the hands of those who may want the country to go the way of Soviet Union.”

Onyema said, “These riots are capable of disintegrating the country.

“Any killing of Southerners in the North may be followed expectedly with reprisal attacks on the peace loving people of the North resident in the Southern part of Nigeria – a scary situation indeed.

“The above scenario, will never and can never favour the generality of Nigerians, especially the North.”

But he maintained that no politician “could ever, in this country again; ride on the back of ethnicity and religion to national power as the voters’ decision must be respected by all.”

The foundation is responsible for the Post-Amnesty training at Obubra.

-Punchwp_posts