The week began with a news story by an online tabloid
in which a purported splinter group from the leading militant group
operating in the oil rich region of southern Nigeria, the Niger Delta
Avengers had emerged.
The new group called itself the Reformed
Niger Delta Avengers, RNDA, went on allege that former President
Goodluck Jonathan is the ‘grand patron’ of the Avengers and a list of
leaders from the Niger Delta region were named as “sponsors” and
“symphatisers” of the Avengers.
In swift successions, beginning from the former president, the people named in the said press statement refuted the claims of the RNDA.
What created a media storm, however,
wasn’t what the press statement said, but the name used to sign the
press statement – Cynthia Whyte, a moniker used by the spokesperson of a
defunct first-generation Niger Delta militant group, the Joint
Revolutionary Council, JRC.
The Joint Revolutionary Council is a group that was aligned with the
defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND. The use
of Cynthia Whyte ignited speculations that MEND is behind the so-called
Avenger’s breakaway group.
The Niger Delta Avengers issued a statement
labelling Cynthia Whyte as a fraud and, pretty much like all other
rebuttals, said that disgruntled elements MEND are trying to seek
patronage from the Buhari government by causing confusion in the
oil-rich region.
Cynthia Whyte contacted the editors at The Trent in
the evening of Thursday, August 11, 2016 and offered to grant us an
exclusive interview on the controversy. She named the persons behind the
Reformed Niger Delta Avengers and also promised that they would be
exposed in due time.
Below are excerpts from the explosive interview:
Q: Has the Joint Revolutionary
Council (JRC) collapsed into the Reformed Niger Delta Avengers?
Recently, press release signed by you Cynthia Whyte was loudly published
by Sahara Reporters naming former President Goodluck Jonathan,
Tompolo, Kingsley Kuku, Governor Nyesom Wike, former Akwa Ibom governor
and now Senator Godswill Akpabio, and some others as sponsors of the
Avengers.
CW: We have released expressly a refutal
and a rebuttal of that stupid, fraudulent and malicious press
statement. It did not come from us (the JRC) and it was not signed by
me. It was an exercise in mischief orchestrated by some of the most
despicable human beings in the Niger Delta who would go to any length to
beg for crumbs that fall of the table of some aides of the Buhari
administration. In the next few days, they will be exposed one by one.
Let me emphasize yet again that the
Joint Revolutionary Council, an alliance group comprising of a few other
militant elements is now defunct.
Apart from being defunct, the name
‘Cynthia Whyte’ which is ‘fluid’, is no more operational as a
spokesperson for either the JRC or any other. Any other who signs a
press release from an email address other than this is not just an
impostor but a being with mischievous existence.
For ten years, beginning in September 2005, this has been the official email address of Cynthia Whyte (cynthia.whyte@gmail.com)
and it is for reasons as this that we have kept this email account
active so that unscrupulous elements who survive from rent seeking and
satanic blackmail will not hijack the process and hoodwink gullible
Nigerians and the international community.
This is what happened a few days ago
when an impostor set out to deceive their rent masters and malign the
names of notable sons and daughters of the Niger Delta. Shame on all of
them.
What is most sickening is the fact that
some of the media houses who carried the story have been in the email
list of ‘Cynthia Whyte’ for almost a decade now. It is bewildering that
there was no verification whatsoever before any publishing. It shows you
just how cantankerous some units with the Nigerian state operate.
There was a time when news agencies
especially those with honor, confirm press releases and verify channels
(email addresses and phone numbers) before they publish. That
differentiates between junk and real.
It was a full conspiracy but they
failed. They set out to tarnish the name of Goodluck Jonathan and the
others but they failed woefully. In time, we will ensure that they are
disgraced.
Former President Jonathan has never
sponsored or encouraged violence in all his life in politics. It is for
that reason that many of the militant leaders in the Niger Delta
continue to remain at war path with him. Some of them have even gone as
far as attempting to attack him and his properties.
The attempt to tarnish the image of
Nyesom Wike, Godswill Akpabio, and the others is another ludicrous and
mischievous adventure by those hooligans who feel that that is the only
way they can impress President Buhari and his lieutenants.
Why would any Governor from the Niger
Delta want to sponsor, patronize or sympathize with any violent
agitation when they know how badly it would affect the monthly income of
the state and starve them of the funds they require to drive
development and progress?
President Buhari should beware of the
mischievous bandits who are driving this new campaign of calumny. Some
of them are retired militant leaders from Bayelsa and Delta State who
have made lots of money in past time through character blackmail and
sabotage. It is their stock in trade. They lack neither the skill or
ability to engage in more progressive endeavors.
Q: How about the Reformed Niger Delta Avengers, RNDA and Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND?
CW: There is nothing like MEND. MEND is
dead. MEND promoters accepted amnesty and gave up violence. Henry Okah
accepted amnesty in Nigeria and returned to South Africa. We do not know
what happened to him there. Boyloaf and the others also said that he
accepted amnesty. You may need to verify from them now what their
current position is. I cannot speak for everyone.
Tompolo too accepted amnesty and then
starting working with competent and skilled Gbaramatu people to build
productive businesses. There are few people who have encouraged the
peace through creating jobs, opportunities, scholarships, etc like
Tompolo. Go to Gbaramatu land and see what Tompolo has done for his
people.
Someone who loves creating jobs and
opportunities cannot support violence. You cannot encourage people to go
to school and still encourage them to carry guns and bomb pipelines.
RNDA is a fraud that must be exposed in
record time. The efforts of the fraudulent RNDA and the mischievous MEND
is what is causing Avengers not to come to the table and negotiate with
the Nigerian state.
You cannot bring peace to the Niger
Delta when you work with unrepentant frauds and hardened criminals who
parade under the nomenclature of RNDA and seek negotiations through a
group as dead as MEND.
Q: Why do you think your name is
being used by this group, wouldn’t it be easier to just create a new
moniker? There are suggestions that former MEND leaders are behind this
new campaign. Could you tell us something more about what you know?
CW: The process of unearthing the
dastard collaborators is already on. Somehow, however, maybe as a result
of their stupidity and the fact that they are in a hurry to impress
their masters who happen to be aides of the Buhari junta, they have
already began to expose themselves.
Few hours ago, Jomo Gbomo of the now
defunct MEND issued a press release lending credence to the statements
made by the impostor ‘Cynthia Whyte’ of their imagined Reformed NDA?
What does that tell you?
They did not create another moniker
because they felt using a better known ‘Cynthia Whyte’ will draw more
attention and sympathy to their demented and myopic cause.
One of the reasons why this is happening
is that some inmates (who are being held for the 2010 Independence Day
Bombing) at Kuje Prisons, surprisingly, have access to mobile phones and
the Internet.
As a result, they can issue these
reckless press statements in partnership with some Abuja based former
MEND leaders who are now desperate to pick from the crumbs that fall off
President Buhari’s table.
JRC is defunct. The name ‘Cynthia Whyte’
is no more operational with respect to agitation in the Niger Delta. We
have kept the email address secure and functional to prevent impostors
from taking the day like we have just seen.
RNDA is a fraudulent entity created by some Abuja based (one is an inmate of Kuje prison) former MEND elements.
Q: The Niger Delta Avengers have captured the imagination of the entire world. So far, apart from rumours, nobody knows has identified any Avenger. Do you know who the Niger Delta Avengers are?
Q: The Niger Delta Avengers have captured the imagination of the entire world. So far, apart from rumours, nobody knows has identified any Avenger. Do you know who the Niger Delta Avengers are?
The Avengers are known to themselves. I
am sure that at the appropriate time, like the MEND leaders you know
now, they will also make themselves known to others.
That in itself explains why these
dubious former MEND leaders (who were well known criminals, armed
robbers, commercial kidnappers before they were graciously given amnesty
by the Yar’Adua Government) will resort to use the moniker ‘Cynthia
Whyte’ to color the non existent RNDA.
Let them come out and explain how they
bombed critical oil and gas infrastructure during their sojourn in
Avengers. In fact as it is now, it is the recalcitrant former MEND
elements that should be held liable for acts of insurgency in the Niger
Delta.
How can a dead MEND that exists only
with an email address controlled some fellow incarcerated in Kuje prison
seek to negotiate on behalf of Avengers? Did any other group negotiate
for the Henry Okah MEND Team when they were relevant?
Even when people like Boyloaf accepted
the Yar’Adua Amnesty and left the creeks, did MEND not initially deny
and then later claimed to disown when it was clear that the man had
moved?
To be continued….
You mentioned earlier that
disgruntled militant elements in the Niger Delta are not happy with
former President Goodluck Jonathan because of his peaceful stance and
that they attacked his properties. Could you explain more on this?
Does it not interest you that just in
the same week that US Presidential Contender Donald Trump accuses
President Obama as being Founder of ISIS, a a bunch of hardened and
desperate criminals from with links to the deformed and defunct MEND are
busy accusing Goodluck Jonathan of funding Avengers?
Is it not for the same reason of not giving them money that they are attacking him (Jonathan) today?
The same people who are accusing
Jonathan that he did not allocate oil blocks and large oil allocations
are the same people accusing him of funding Avengers today.
Were the not the people who attacked his
house in Otueke years ago, when he was Vice President, because they
accused him of not sharing money for them?
Do not worry. They will fully exposed in good time. There is a limit to how much criminal mischief can go.
– End of Interview –
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