"There are still too many! Bring them down to the spring, and I will sort out who
will go with you and who will not"
- God to Gideon (Judges 7:5)

The ongoing amnesty program by the government of Nigeria seems to have achieved
separating those who still have the zeal to fight for our freedom from those who
were in it for the money.

Today, Saturday, August 22, 2009 that sorting process was again re-enacted in
Yenagoa, Bayelsa state where weapons mostly bought by the government were
displayed and the boys separated from the men in the circus.

The charade witnessed in Bayelsa is not an indication of success but that of failure
considering that the energy put into that event could have been better used
in deliberating on the root issues collated in the Niger Delta Technical Committee
report which addressed such germane issues from the Willink's Commission of 1958 to
date.

In the midst of such sheer deceit, MEND will be compelled to resume with ferocious
attacks on the oil industry at the end of our ceasefire on September 15, 2009 to
prove that weapons being displayed are mostly government-owned and those
surrendering them have not been part of the previous campaigns like Hurricanes
Barbarossa, Piper Alpha and Moses that brought the government to their knees.

We have also suspended talks with the Special Adviser to the President on the
amnesty, Mr. Timi Alaibe who like the government, expects a disarmament without the
real issues being addressed.

MEND will not enter into talks with governors from the region who have tainted the
amnesty program with politics and monetary inducements.

Many of the boys who have received money today will at best squander it on material
things and what happens next can best be left to the imagination.

Our solemn pledge to the people of the Niger Delta still remains to emancipate the
region from the forces that have held it down for over 50 years with divide and
rule, monetary inducements and treachery.

Jomo Gbomo