MEND Rebels Issue Threat to Bomb Mosques, Kill Clerics

Nigeria’s Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said it will start a bombing campaign against mosques and Islamic institutions, a week after the rebel group said it killed 15 security personnel in the southern oil-producing Bayelsa state.

“The bombings of mosques, haj camps, Islamic institutions, large congregations in Islamic events and assassinations of clerics that propagate doctrines of hate will form the core mission of this crusade,” MEND spokesman Jomo Gbomo said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. The campaign, codenamed “Barbarossa,” will start May 31, it said.

MEND may consider a cease-fire if the Christian Association of Nigeria, the Catholic Church and the group’s suspected leader Henry Okah intervene, according to the statement. The threat comes as the government of President Goodluck Jonathan battles Islamist militants in the mainly Muslim north and the capital, Abuja. Hundreds of of people have died since 2009 in bombings and other attacks.

MEND, the main rebel group in the Niger Delta, destroyed a Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) oil well in Nembe in southern Bayelsa state on April 13 as part of an operation it calls “Hurricane Exodus,” Gbomo said.

Precious Okolobo, a Lagos-based spokesman for Shell’s Nigerian unit, couldn’t confirm the attack when contacted by phone. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-14/nigeria-s-mend-rebels-threaten-to-bomb-mosques-kill-clerics.html

The Director Army Public Relations, Brigadier-General Ibrahim Attahiru has assured Nigerians that the men of the Joint Task Force (JTF) are equipped and ready to deal with threats from Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta and militant groups in the Niger Delta and elsewhere.

“Without doubt, the strength of the JTF in the Niger Delta is enough to deal with them. So, the issue of deployment of troops in the area does not arise. We are absolutely ready for MEND or any other group that might want to resume disturbance in the Niger Delta. The army will not tolerate such attacks on Nigerians,” he said.