Niger Delta Militant, Togo 'Resurrects'

SAN FRANCISCO, April 18, (THEWILL) - Recalcitrant militant group, Niger Delta Liberation Front (NDLF), says it has created a channel to keep the struggle for the development of Niger Delta by deceased militant warlord, John Togo alive.

The group is called “Voice of John Togo”.

The outlawed group said it want to carry on with the ‘struggle’, which John Togo was pursuing in the Niger Delta region. However, this time, they wouldn’t take up arms, but they would agitate vigorously to attract the Federal Government to act on issues concerning development of the oil-rich region, leader of the group said.

Group Leader, ‘General’ Peter Dolo-Ebiowei who preferred to be called “Voice of John Togo”, however declared that the militant warlord, John Togo is dead.

Though dead, he said, Togo is crying for the development of the Niger Delta.

He lamented that President Goodluck Jonathan has not done much to tackle the underdevelopment of the region which, he said was the initial cause of militancy and the arms struggle.

‘General’ Peter Dolo-Ebiowei was the second-in-command to Togo.

He is speaking for the first time since John Togo was allegedly killed by the Joint Task Force (JTF) last year.

Togo’s death was initially disputed because the JTF couldn’t confirm that the corpse they exhumed sometime last year after the onslaught in the Israel Barracks was that the militant leader.

Togo’s death has been a subject of controversy with the JTF insisting that stories of his death were being peddled to divert the attention of the security outfit and ensure that he escapes the long arms of the law.

The controversy heightened when a decomposing corpse suspected to be his was exhumed at his camp but the JTF maintained that it would not call off the search for him until a DNA proved the exhumed corpse was Togo.

The JTF has still not formally briefed the press about the matter since then.

But ‘General’ Dolo-Ebiowei said that the corpse actually exhumed by the JTF last year was that of the militant warlord.

“I ‘General’ Peter Dolo-Ebiowei, (aka Voice of John Togo), pronounced to you fellow Nigerians, precisely Ijaw Nation, and all freedom fighters that ‘General’ John Togo, (aka Leader, Snapshot Shooter) is dead”.

“John Togo was killed by the JTF but the struggle was not killed.”

He said, “we will continue with the peace part of Togo” adding however that the struggle must not be criminalize.

He also called on the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe, Chief Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo), Hon Kingsley Kuku and others to prevail on President Goodluck Jonathan to commence proper development of the entire region and not a section of it.

‘General’ Dolo-Ebiowei noted that the Togo-led NDLF was on the verge of surrendering their weapons to the Kingsley Kuku-led Amnesty Committee when the JTF launches attack on 12th and 13th of May 2011.