Source: Clayton Consultants quoting IRINIn a demonstration of support for Henry Okah, who the Nigerian government put on trial in April, militant leaders have said that they will escalate armed conflict. “We have pulled out of any peace talks, we have not disarmed so there really is no progress since Henry's arrest,” the spokesman for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) who goes by the name of Jomo Gbomo wrote in an April 13 email. Gbomo said that militants would target oil installations even if the oil companies repair pipelines.
“It only takes a few minutes to destroy what took years to build.” The militants in the MEND alliance had become fragmented in recent years, but Okah's arrest may now be unifying them, said Elias Courson, a professor of political science in Port Harcourt. “Okah has enemies and friends in the Niger Delta,” Courson said. “But [by arresting him], the government is rallying support for him.”
