Last week, Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua met with longtime militant leader Henry Okah, a move the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta says led to its to decision to declare the latest cease-fire.
The militant group’s shift in position comes after the government "expressed its readiness to engage in serious and meaningful dialogue with every group or individual towards achieving a lasting peace in the Niger Delta," Jomo Gbomo, MEND spokesman said Sunday.
Gbomo said that after the meeting, Okah had "indicated the willingness of the government to negotiate" with MEND. The group has formed a team to negotiate, Gbomo said. State oil companies reacted positively to the development.
"That’s good news. This is what we want to hear and what we are looking for," Levi Ajunuma, spokesman for state oil company Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, told The Associated Press Sunday Nigeria’s oil minister and several other Nigerian government officials did not respond to repeated phone calls Sunday.
The attacks from MEND and unrest in the Niger Delta region had cut
Source: Africa World News