Emma Amaize
& Godwin Oghre
04 January 2012, Sweetcrude, SAPELE – A group of ex-militants, under the aegis of Niger Delta Revolution Force, has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to, as a matter of urgency, arrest and try all those recently uncovered by the Senate to have illegitimately been benefiting from fuel subsidy or risk its wrath.
The leader of the group, Comrade Babatunde Omatseye said in Sapele, Wednesday, that the group would regroup and launch attacked on oil facilities across the Niger Delta region, as well as go after those who unjustly benefited from fuel subsidy, should government fail to direct the relevant law enforcement agencies to prosecute them.
Comrade Omatseye also advised the law enforcement agencies to shun the use of force, capable of maiming or killing unarmed members of the civil society who were protesting across the nation, the recent removal of fuel subsidy and its concomitant hike in transportation fares or risk reprisal attack from the group.
The ex-militant leader said the group, comprising of over, 1,400 former combatants would no longer fold their hands and watch the entire nation plunge into “irrecoverable abysmal economic quagmire”, and called on the federal government to restore to status-quo the price of fuel across the nation.
Omatseye further said the group was considering the possibility of regrouping for an onslaught on oil facilities across Niger Delta should President Jonathan fail to prosecute the beneficiaries of the fuel subsidy and revert the present hike in price of fuel to N65.00 per litre.
He asserted that the removal of subsidy by the federal government has no benefits to the lives of the people of Niger-Delta, pointing out that it has only added to their suffering.
The ex-militant leader also denounced the situation in which kerosene is presently sold for N130, petrol N145 and diesel N150 per litre in the guise of subsidy removal, contrary to N50, N65 and N90 respectively that the products were earlier sold.
