Prof. Soyinka is Not our Adviser – NDA Says as it Declares Support for the E.K Clark-led Negotiation/Dialogue Team

The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) has described as untrue, a news report that it had named Professor Wole Soyinka as one of its advisers in the planned dialogue with Nigeria’s  federal government.

The militant group, in a statement by its spokesperson, Mudoch Agbinibo, on Saturday, expressed its support for Edwin Kiagbodo Clark to lead the Pan Niger Delta Negotiation/Dialogue Team to discuss with the federal government.

This clarification is coming few days after the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) had pledged its support and unalloyed loyalty to Clark on the struggle for dialogue.

The militant group noted that some names being paraded as factions of the NDA were the figment of “characters of the All Progressive Congress (APC) from Niger Delta, bent on protecting their jobs.

The militant group further said that Prof. Soyinka has been taken for a ride because of his position on the restructuring of Nigeria and the need to listen to the Niger Delta agitators.

Read the statement below:

The High Command of the Niger Delta Avengers are bothered again on the insensitivity to the genuine plight of the Niger Delta agitation by every successive government of Nigeria and the present handlers of the APC government.  We are amazed that Prof. Wole Soyinka, has been taken on the jugular by enemies  of the Niger Delta because of  his belief that the government of the day should understand the need to restructuring and listen to the Niger Delta agitation positively.

That if, we the NDA have named Prof Wole Soyinka and some incredible names to advise and lead any group is the Lie of The Century!  They say, ‘when a handshake goes beyond the elbow it has turned to another thing; amazingly, the handwriting is so clear that our noble laureate’s name is going the infamous way, as he is being named as an adviser, alongside some unscrupulous characters as Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) dialogue team with the government of Nigeria.

Putting the records straight; the name/names parading as factions of the Niger Delta Avengers are just the figment of some persons protecting their jobs and hell bent on derailing the wheel of progress in the history of Nigeria and the Niger Delta agitation. 

Our strike teams and Command structures have not at anytime contacted these Nigerians to advise or lead any contact with the government of Muhammadu Buhari on the Niger Delta agitation.  We have shown our respect and restraints to personalities that have been too fixated to impress Abuja in the name of the Niger Delta struggle since the beginning of ‘Operation Red Economy’ ignorantly or willingly.   

The NDA cannot be teleguided by Charles Okah and Henry Okah from their respective prison cells using disorganised characters of the All Progressive Congress (APC), from the Niger Delta to impress Abuja. We are not unaware of the creations of the Nigerian Intelligentsia community and security apparatus to sustain the Niger Delta struggle to bloat their pocket and credibility.

The NDA have unequivocally given our tacit support to the Edwin Kiagbodo Clark-led Niger Delta Elders and Stakeholders conference committee to lead the Pan Niger Delta Negotiations/Dialogue Team, whenever this wicked entity called Nigeria shows readiness.

Recall that Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to President Muhammadu Buhari recently said that the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) has met with “more than 30 different groups” that claim to be original representatives of the NDA.

“At the end of the day, you don’t know who to talk with, and that has been a major hindrance to the dialogue,” Adesina had stated. Watch it here.