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> We are not dregs; we are not criminals, with an insatiable appetite for blood and sadism. We are not arm rubbers ; we are not beasts and terrorists, with propensity to wreak havoc, indulge in mindless killing, maiming and raping of girls and women.
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> We state and declare unmistakably that we represent the conscience of the people of the Niger Delta and other patriots, as well as sincere members of the international community, who are anguished by the degradation of the Niger Delta and the dehumanization of our people in all oil-bearing communities.
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> We cannot be intimidated by any resort to threats and weapon of terror as falsehood and pretences never conquer light and naked truth, which is the fulcrum of the current struggle.
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> Our resolve to lay down our arms if the Federal Government exhibit undisguised honesty and commitment now, must not and should not be misconstrued and interpreted as a sign of weakness. Rather, the Federal Government and other authorities and genuine foreign friends and investors should our resolve to accept the official offer as an eloquent practical demonstration of our commitment to exploring all decent and transparent approaches for settling fundamental national issues, disputes and addressing genuine grievances, and based on standard practices across the world.
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> Our members numbering more than 7000.form the nucleus of the leadership of a coalition of forces that has forestsoldiers a.k.a isaac borolast born,across nooks and crannies of the entire lagos and ogun state, especially where oil pipelines are located. We have a well-knit network that can sustain our legitimate campaign, cause and struggle as long as it will take to actualise our ultimate desire for a better and new deal for the harangued, oppressed, deprived and persecuted people of the Niger Delta. We warn that it is foolhardy for any authority to undermine our doggedness, capacity and capability to sustain the current struggle. No authority should claim to be more familiar with our terrain, no more Catholic than the Pope.
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> We are not economic saboteurs, but we are seriously aggrieved freedom fighters irked by the capricious Nigerian elite, including the so-called leaders from the Niger Delta that have impoverished and turned millions of our kinsmen into third-class citizens. The Nigerian political and economic elite with their few conspirators from the Niger Delta have continuously collaborated to provokingly ensure degradation of our cultivable land, waterways and dehumanized our people, with the dire consequence of mental depression, hopelessness and short-lived lifespan. We detest and will continue to resist against any system that promotes inequality and enthrones the mentality of beast of burden.
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> We have staked all we have (our lives inclusive) in the ongoing cause after going through bitter struggle and frustrating experience to get educated. Thousands of our contemporaries currently roam the streets in search of employment having been forced ignobly by circumstances imposed on them by oil exploration and exploitation in oil-bearing communities in the Niger Delta.
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> Yet, we are still being deprived of our commonwealth by a voracious elite that brazenly flaunts ill-gotten wealth they have continued to acquire from the Niger Delta, to the chagrin of millions of our people wallowing abject poverty and want.
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> We are not criminals but citizens who believe in sincere consultation, dialogue and genuine agitation over the dehumanization of our people and degradation of their environment. Having been deprived of their means of livelihood by the conscienceless few, the majority of people have been forced to live in misery and polluted atmosphere with attendant precarious health hazards.
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> Consequently, we are prepared to lay down our arms based on the following conditions:
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> .That the Federal Government declares and states unequivocally its total commitment to dialogue and reconciliation;
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> .That the Federal Government affirms in no unmistakable terms its commitment to capturing all aggrieved groups and their members that agree to disarmament in empowerment schemes and rehabilitation;
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> .That the Federal Government and all its coercive apparatuses unambiguously demonstrate and declare their commitment to dialogue, reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Niger Delta.
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> .That the Federal Government must uphold truth, equity and fairness in dealing with major stakeholders that have championing the struggle for freedom, emancipation, development and prosperity in the Niger Delta. There must be no room for betrayal, subterfuge and hypocrisy but a true display of sincerity, piety and honesty on the part of the government and state apparatuses.
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> We have chosen this path of laying down our arms not from the point of weakness. Rather, our action is based on altruistic doggedness to the cause and principle that capable of ushering a new dawn and vista in the Niger Delta, that can fast track the process of eliminating pervasive subdued tension, climate of despair, despondency, criminal neglect in all oil communities in the Niger Delta.
>> We are peace-loving citizens who abhor and detest acts of injustice, enslavement and savagery subjected to for being the goose that lays the golden egg. Our people and land remains a land of army occupation with the unwarranted reign of terror just because our people insist and demand rectitude, equity, respect for their fundamental human rights and adherence to standard engagements based on international charter. Also we were neglected from the amnesty programme in the first and second phase owing to power tussle with the people democratic party (PDP) led administration,this was why we left our home since 2009 in order not to shed our brothers' blood with our own arms, we have occupied the pipeline areas of lagos and ogun state where we can wreck irreparable havoc and put Nigeria in an opprobrious state if government takes us for granted.
of Niger delta
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