The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) categorically denies the
orchestrated rumors being peddled by government agents and propagandists that MEND
senior commanders, Farah Dagogo, Boyloaf and Soboma George have accepted to receive
amnesty by proxy as carried in some local newspapers.

It is a shame that the interior minister and his cohorts are offering bribes and
incentives to militants in a desperate attempt to get our cooperation in sharing the
50billion Naira budgeted for the amnesty exercise.

A traditional ruler from the oil bearing Egbema kingdom in the Niger Delta, HRM
Isaac Thikan, the Agadagba of Egbema and a staunch critic of the military excesses
in the region was forcibly abducted on June 24, 2009 by the JTF and taken to their
headquarters in Effurun, Warri where we are hearing he may have been killed.

If confirmed to be true, the extra-judicial killing of a royal father after the
destruction of the palace of the Gbaramatu monarch will be the last straw and will
certainly have dire consequences.