WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2009-05-19 Time: 15:00:04 Posted By: Jan
By Ahamefula Ogbu in Port Harcourt and Omon-Julius Onabu With Agency Reports
Lagos – Hostilities between the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) and militants in the Niger Delta escalated yesterday as JTF has confirmed the destruction of Iroko Camp, a militant stronghold in Oporoza community, Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State.
Also yesterday, and in response to the growing opposition by Niger Delta leaders against the shelling of militant camps, the military blamed the ongoing onslaught on the militants.
The task force had destroyed Camp 5, a militant camp in Warri South Local Government last Friday with the resurgence of the clashes.
JTF Spokesman, Col. Rabe Abubakar, in an online statement to journalists yesterday said Iroko Camp was destroyed in the early hours of the day.
He said the destruction was part of the search and rescue operation launched by the task force last week.
Abubakar said the military encountered fierce resistance from the militants which led to serious gun battle and the killing of many militants.
“There was no casualty on JTF’s side,” he said.
He said the operation at Iroko Camp was successful and that unquantified arms, ammunition and other military accessories were recovered from the camp, located in a thick forest.
“I am happy to inform the public that the existence of Iroko camp is now history, because as I am talking to you, our troops have taken over the former camp,” he said.
The spokesman said that reliable information had indicated that members of the destroyed camps were regrouping in Bayelsa to unleash terror on innocent people.
“Any attack on JTF’s location or government economic interest in any part of the region will be viewed seriously because a minute number of unpatriotic elements cannot hold others to ransom,” he said.
Director of Defence Information, Col. Christopher Jemitola, told a news conference in Abuja that deliberate and repeated unprovoked attacks on JTF troops, the sabotage of oil and gas facilities, the kidnapping for ransom of people and the killing of innocent citizens in the region needed to be checked.
He said these were acts of criminality that could not be condoned by any government and no responsible military leadership would look away while its personnel were attacked and killed on official assignments.
Jemitola said: “In the course of carrying out this responsibility, the military will no longer tolerate or watch criminal gangs slaughter its personnel without response.
“The military is left with no choice than to go after these criminals in order to bring them to book.
“No community was razed in this process and collateral damage was kept to the barest minimum. Law abiding citizens have nothing to fear as only these criminal gangs are being hunted down.
“On May 13, members of the Joint Task Force’s ‘Operation Restore Hope’, on routine escort duties around the Chanomi Creek were ambushed by a militant group leading to the unfortunate and painful loss of some military personnel.
“Prior to this, an NNPC chartered tanker, CM SPIRIT, had been hijacked with its foreign crew and some Nigerians on board taken hostage.
“The vessel was run aground by the militants, who also stole some of its cargo while the crew members were tortured leading to the death of some of them.”
Jemitola lamented that the militants attacked the JTF’s search and rescue team sent to free the remaining crew members held hostage.
“The search led to the discovery of a large cache of illegal arms and ammunition used for acts of criminality,” he said.
The military action over the weekend led to the rescue of nine Filipinos and four Ukrainians who had been abducted by the militants.
However, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has called on Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan to resign following alleged insensitivity of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to the plight of civilians in the Niger Delta as a result of the pounding of the area with war panes.
The call on Jonathan to resign has been followed by threats of some people from the region to resign their appointments in federal committees.
MEND had in a statement by its Spokesman Gbomo Jomo claimed that the bombings of the Ijaw communities were so brazen that it became clear that they were aimed at decimating the people of the region.
The statement said: “At one point we began wondering if the pilots had problems with the calibration of their weapons. It is now evident that sheer resentment of a people waking up to claim what has been stolen for five decades was the cause.
“To make matters worse, the Nigerian government, aware of the consequences of its actions and with an existing National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), had no contingency plans for the displaced persons; yet that same agency is very quick to respond in the North over a minor rain storm.”
Delta State Ijaw Traditional Rulers Council also rose from a meeting in Warri, pleading with President Yar’Adua to prevail on JTF to immediately halt its ongoing operations in the coastal areas of the state.
They also appealed to their armed children to lay down their arms and pave the way for a peaceful resolution of the crisis.
The royal fathers took a swipe at a section of the media that blew the crisis out of proportion by mischievously telling the world that hundreds of people had been killed during the military clampdown.
The Ijaw royal fathers’ expressed their position in a communiqué read to journalists at Peemos Hotel in Warri, saying, however, that the destruction of lives and property in the communities of Gbaramatu Kingdom was avoidable.
The Council Chairman, HRM G.O. Tiemo, Bini Pree III and Agadagba of Egbema Kingdom, and Secretary, HRM Stanley P. Luke, the Pere Kalanama VIII, signed the document.
However, one of the rulers, Pere Charles Ayemi-Botu, who is the traditional head of Seimbiri Kingdom in Buiutu Local Government Area, disagreed with the others in apportioning blame to the armed youths.
Ayemi-Botu blamed the recent skirmishes on “the failure of President Yar’Adua to manage the situation in the Gbaramatu Kingdom and Niger Delta, which former president Olusegun Obasanjo tried to manage.”
The ex-chairman of the group of Traditional Rulers from Oil Producing Areas of Nigeria (TROMPCON) wondered why the same President who voted a colossal sum of N440 billion has practically failed to fund the new Ministry of Niger Delta.
However, the royal fathers were unanimous that some bad eggs had infiltrated the ranks of the militants engaged in just struggle for justice in the region, but stressed that that did not mean “a real and just struggle does not exist”.
They equally distanced themselves from calls for death penalty for militants in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, crude oil rose above $59 a barrel following the threat by the militants to block Niger Delta waterways used for energy exports and as an explosion and fire at a Sunoco Inc. refinery “impacted” operations in the U.S. Northeast.
According to Bloomberg, crude oil for June delivery rose $2.76, or 4.9 per cent, to $59.10 a barrel at 1:18 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract clim-bed as much as $2.85, or 5.1 per cent, to $59.19. Futures are up 33 per cent this year.
The June Nymex oil contract expires tomorrow. The more- actively-traded July contract increased $2.69, or 4.7 per cent, to $59.69 a barrel.
Gasoline for June delivery gained 6.79 cents, or 4 per cent, to $1.7485 a gallon in New York. Futures touched $1.7512, the highest since Oct. 20.
Energy futures also climbed after U.S. equities increased on better-than-forecast earnings by Lowe’s Cos. and analysts recommended Bank of America Corp.
Original Source: 
Original date published: 19 May 2009
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200905190006.html?viewall=1