Godswill Tamuno and Alaebi Oyinye – both signed a statement June 11 stating that 10 hostages being held by MEND would be released, demanding $1.5 billion from Shell to be paid to the “aborigines” of the Niger Delta, the demilitarization of Ijaw land and the Niger Delta and the release of Mujahid Asari Dokubo and former Bayelsa state governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha. Tamuno’s group calls itself MEND. Could be part of the Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities (FNDIC). Another MEND spokesman has been listed as Akpos Nabena.
Ijaw groups were relatively quiet until 1997, when local government headquarters was moved from the Ijaw town of Ogbe-ijoh to the Itsekiri area of Ogidigben.
Arewa Peoples Congress
Authentic Emancipation of the Movement for Peace Development in the Niger Delta (EMOPEND) – Spokesman and possible leader is Commander Jerry Sea-Lion. Kidnapped two foreigners from the ship “Monipo.” Both kidnap victims worked for Peak Petroleum. The kidnapping was to protest Goodluck Jonathan's visit to Rivers and Delta States but not Bayelsa.
Bakassi Boys – Began in Abia state as a way to protect people from robbers and murderers. The formation and practices of the group followed an Igbo tradition of establishing vigilante groups called Ndi Nche to protect communities. The governor of Anambra State invited the Bakassa Boys to improve the crime situation in the state, particularly the market city of Onitsha. In Anambra, the Bakassa Boys operated under the official title of Anambra Vigilante Service (AVS), but are colloquially known as the Bakassa Boys. Onitsha had become nearly overrun with robbers and murderers. The Federal Government and local police were unwilling or unable to remedy the problem. The Bakassa Boys succeeded in dramatically reducing the crime, though at the very least by conducting their own trials and extra-judicial sentencing, often execution. Some allege they used torture and inhumane methods of execution. The Bakassi Boys are suspected in extra-judicial killings of ‘Prophet’ Eddy Okeke and Okonkwo, local chair of the All-People’s Party. Suspicion in the latter case prompted the Governor to tighten the reins. The Federal government was already paying more attention to the group. As an alternative to state and federal law enforcement and use of force, the existence of the Bakassi Boys contributed to a heated debate on separatist movements and the North’s interest in curtailing a trend toward fragmentation. A serious rivalry between the Bakassi Boys and the Nigeria Police developed. Allied with MASSOB in in Abia and Imo states to force gas station owners to lower gasoline prices to government approved rates.
Black Axe – Cult that has branches all over the country and the group is about 50 years old. Not certain of the exact time they were formed.
Bush Boys/Peace Makers – Merged into NDPVF.
Bayelsa Youths Federation of Nigeria (BAYOF) –
Chief Ekpemupolo (aka General Tompolo, etc.) – see MEND. Led a meeting in Oporoza village, Gbamaratu kingdom near Warri in early July 2007 to discuss among Ijaw leaders and militant leaders how to proceed. Goodluck Jonathan visited Ekpemupolo personally when the former visited the creeks in late June or early July 2007 to discuss how to pacify the Delta.
Chikoko Movement – Founded Nov. 1998, comprised of Ijaw, Itsekiri, Ogoni, Andoni and Ilaje activists. Asari Dokubo may have also led this group.
Coalition for Militant Action in the Niger Delta (COMA) – following the attack by MEND on the police station in Port Harcourt to free two leaders, COMA denounced MEND’s action.
Deegbam – Local cult gang and Klansmen rival. Merged into NDPVF. Attacked by Outlaws summer 2007.
Egbesu Boys of Bayelsa (EBB) – Party to the Dec. 11, 1998 Kaiama Declaration. Egbesu is an Ijaw deity.
Elegant Face - Merged into NDPVF.
Federated Niger Delta Ijaw (Izon) Communities (FNDIC) – Led by Oboko Bello. Associated with MEND. Responsible for the kidnapping of 20-something Filipinos in early 2007. Headquartered in Gbaramatu, an Ijaw clan with strong ties to MEND. Very strong and active in Delta State. Controls and populates the MEND – Delta State branch. Government Ekpemupolo, a senior commander in MEND, is the director of mobilization for FNDIC.
Greenlanders – Led by Theophilus Fubara. Merged into NDPVF.
Icelanders – Led by Tom Ateke. Members sometimes called faithfuls. Affiliated with NDV.
Ijaw Youth Council (IYC)/ Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF) – Formed on Dec. 11, 1998 at Kaiama, Bayelsa state and simultaneously released the Kaiama Declaration. Possibly participated in atrocities in after formation to 1999 against Itsekiris and in collaboration with INC. Since 2001, led by a man named Asari Dokubo (aka Mujahid Dokubo-Asari), who converted to Islam, one of very few Muslims in the delta region. A firebrand since youth, he now aims to liberate the entire Niger delta region and speaks for all Ijaws (by his own assertion, some Ijaws may not want him speaking for them, though he is respected as a liberator among Ijaws). He was not a founding member of the IYC, but his zeal impressed superiors in the IYC and he quickly rose through the ranks. He has engaged in warfare with non-Ijaws, but refocused his organization’s efforts on the government. Under Asari’s leadership, IYC has called for Niger delta secession from Nigeria. The main militant wing of the IYC is the Niger Delta (People’s) Volunteer Force. Reportedly based in Bayelsa state, 20 minute row from Brass town. Oct. 1, 2004, NDPVF threatened to target oil workers in the Niger Delta, but refrain from attacking oil installations. Asari Dokubo was jailed around Sept. 2005 and militant / separatist groups, including MEND, are demanding his release, along with the release of a former governor of Bayelsa state.
Ijaw National Congress (INC) - Possibly participated in atrocities in 1997-1999 against Itsekiris and in collaboration with IYC. Formed in 1991 and is composed of representatives elected by each of its constituent Ijaw-speaking communities. More conservative that IYC.
Ijaw National Council USA – sends support to Ijaw and lobbies the Nigerian government on behalf of Ijaw in Nigeria.
Ijaw Ethnic Nationality Rights and Protection Organization of Nigeria (IENRPON) – Claims historical ethnic ownership of most of the Niger delta, including present-day Akwa-Ibom, Rivers, Delta, Edo, Ondo and Lagos states. Itsekiris, Binis and Ilajes claim parts of Delta, Edo and Ondo states, respectively.
Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC) – Led by Cynthia Whyte, an influential member of NDPVF. Coordinates activities, including MEND’s, with other militant groups. On June 12, called for the release of Asari Dokubo and threatened to blow up oil and gas infrastructure if he was tried in absentia. NDPVF, Coalition of Militant Activity (COMA) and the Martyr’s Brigade are also affiliated with JRC.
Klansmen – Local cult gang and Deebam rival.
Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) – Not technically a Niger Delta group, but a group that has figured into southern Nigerian politics nonetheless. May have been peaceful, but was targeted by the military nonetheless. The leader, Ralph Uwazuruike, was arrested shortly after the Sept. 2005 arrest of Dokubo-Asari. Commandos raided his compound in Imo State while he was playing soccer.
Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) – a clearinghouse of groups that officially formed January 11, 2006 following the arrest of Asari Dokubo. MEND is organized into three main factions, each faction overseeing one of the major ND states – Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers States. Tompolo (aka Government Tompolo or Governor Tompolo aka Government Ekpemupolo) heads the Delta State faction, Soboma George leads the Rivers State faction. The Gbaramatu kingdom in SW Warri has strong ties to MEND and has served as informal negotiators between MEND and Abuja in the past. The victims of the Aug. 20, 2006 Letugbene killing were buried near Oporoza. Oboko Bello, leader of FNDIC, spoke at their funeral.
Pictures of Oporoza, a village in Gbamaratu where FNDIC and MEND are very active: <
Photos from Oporoza and of life along the creeks there: < >.
Other leaders include: General Columbus Brutus Ebipade, General Tammo (aka Governor Tompolo, aka Government Tompolo and those titles combined with other surnames which seem to be phonetic variations of Tompolo) and Akpos Nabena. These are likely all pseudonyms.
Movement of the Survival of the Ijaw in the Niger Delta (MOSIEND) – Founded in 1992. Wrote a letter to U.S. President Clinton in 1995 declared its decision to create an Ijaw state in the Niger Delta to be called the Republic of the Niger Delta. Also announced to the British government they wanted to create the Republic of the Niger Delta. This group is more peaceful than INC and IYC.
This website: < > has editorials about politics in the Niger Delta. Best viewed in IE.
Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) – President: Ledum Mitee. Not very active, but in Feb. 2007, it rallied to fight people from Bodo community in Rivers State after the Ogoni people there suspected that people from Bodo had killed a woman. Oriented around protecting the Ogoni people rather than fighting foreign exploitation exclusively. Set fire in five places to a pipeline feeding the Bonny export terminal in June 2007. Burned for several weeks.
Niger Delta Freedom Fighters (NDFF) – Led by Egbema One, based in Egbema Kingdom of Delta State.
Niger Delta Strike Force (NDSF) – Founded by Prince Farah Ipalibo, an estranged commander in the NDPVF. Involved in the January 2007 rescue of Soboma George following the latter’s detention at the Port Harcourt police station.
Niger Delta Vigilante/Icelanders - Reportedly led by Ateke Tom. The second-in-command was Soboma George, who was freed by MEND on Jan. 28, 2007 in a raid on Port Harcourt police headquarters. Soboma George may have fallen out with the group before the attack. In any case, his relationship to the Niger Delta Vigilante/Icelanders and to MEND remains unclear. Tom Ateke is at odds with Asari (of IYC/NDPVF) over how to operate.
O’odua Peoples Congress – The two main leaders were Dr Fredrick Fasehun and Mr Ganiyu Adams until their detention in late 2005. They wre subsequently released, but remain under a sort of house arrest. Details on their current conditions are fuzzy.
Outlaws – Led by Sampson Adoki. Merged into NDPVF after it spun off of Icelanders, Ateke Tom’s group that he took when he founded NDV.
South-South Liberation Movement – Revived calls for separate Niger Delta state in 2005, and claimed to be training youths for guerilla warfare prior to declaring a Niger Delta Republic. Active in Bayelsa state. The group is alleged to be led by a retired Warrant Officer of the Nigerian Army who received counter-terrorism training in South-Korea.
“Sunday Vanguard discovered that the movement has been working underground in the creeks of Niger Delta for about five years now and has about 150 preparation camps where jobless graduates and undergraduates were allegedly being taught regimentation, weapons handling and jungle warfare. Ex military men from the Niger Delta, especially those that were suddenly retired from the Army, Air force and Navy, were also allegedly learnt to have signed up with the group and are ready to fight for the actualization of resource control. In fact, a collection of retired military pensioners in the South-South who fought on the Nigerian side during the civil war openly declared in Warri, last month that they would join in the emancipation struggle.” ( Source: < > ) Claimed in an interview with Sunday Vanguard in Aug. 2005 (quoted from above) that there were already 6,000 men trained, but that over 10 million are ready to fight if necessary. The population of the Niger delta region is variously estimated to be from 10 million to 30 million. Even if the higher numbers are accurate, 10 million people willing (and able) to fight is very high. 6,000 trained men, most of whom are armed, seems reasonable, though.
Vikings – A cult that provided refuge to Soboma George and logistics used in freeing him from prison. They have branches all over the country. Group is about 30 years old.
Other groups around since 1999 or earlier:
Oron National Forum, Ogoni Solidarity Movement, MOSOP, Environmental Rights Agenda, Ndigbo Movement, Democratic Socialist Movement, Media for Ethnic Equality, and various pan-Yoruba groups.
Asari Dokubo – Former leader of Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force until his Sept. 2005 arrest in Port Harcourt. Released June 2007. Spokesman: Onegiya Erekosima.
Teks Olomu, who claimed on Dec. 16, 2006 in an article in The Daily Sun, to be the leader of MEND. He also threatened kidnappings of corrupt government leaders and suicide bombings in the same interview.