Niger Delta militants embrace Yar’ Adua’s peace offer - BusinessDay

The four-day campaign in Bayelsa State began on Thursday November 29 2007, with a four hour boat ride through the dense mangrove forest to militia leader Commander Boy Loff’s camp. Commander Boy Loff addressed the peace emissaries with his face heavily turbaned and surrounded by his heavily armed guards’s. He declared that the militants were willing to give Yar’ Adua a chance but with one rider which he termed a ‘clause’.

The clause was the demand for the release of their leader Jomo Gbomo whose arrest he accused the Federal Government of conniving with a foreign government to arrange and execute. Boy Loff stated that prior to the arrest of Jomo Gbomo, militia leaders in the Niger Delta had agreed in-principle to a cease fire as directed by their leader Jomo Gbomo, following the various consultative moves made to them by the Chairman and members of the Peace Committee. He added that Jomo Gbomo’s release was their ‘only clause’ left before formally announcing the twelve month ceasefire. Without his release, Commander Loff said he could not guarantee the coming into effect of a ceasefire. He praised the Bayelsa State Government for fully meeting their part of the negotiated but unannounced peace deal which was done through the state chapter of the Niger Delta Peace and Conflict Resolution Committee headed by James Jephtah, adding that only the Federal Government was defaulting by arranging the arrest and detention of Jomo Gbomo in Angola.

Getting to the venue of the joint meeting with commanders Africa and Joshua also took some three hours non-stop boat ride to their camps. They refused to allow committee members into their camps. Commander Joshua, a rather taciturn man of few words, opened discussion on behalf of the duo. He confirmed contact with the State chapter of the Niger Delta Peace and Conflict Resolution Committee who hammered out the outlines of the peace deal. Top on his list of demands were a general amnesty for the leadership and others in the resistance and the release of Jomo Gbomo. Commander Joshua accused the federal government of being behind the arrest and detention of Jomo Gbomo by the government of Angola. Full Story