Jonathan didn’t form Niger Delta Avengers —Kinsmen

Against the backdrop of the allegation by the Reformed Niger Delta Avengers (RNDA) that former President Goodluck Jonathan formed the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), kinsmen of Dr Jonathan under the aegis of Ogbia Brotherhood have dismissed the unfounded allegation.

The Ogbia Brotherhood, the highest political body in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, challenged security agencies to unravel the masquerades perpetuating the economic sabotage and the smear campaign of calumny against the former president.

In a statement signed by the National Chairman, Chief Benson Agadaga and Secretary-General, Ogiriki Ebutu, the group condemned in strong terms the spurious and wild allegations against Jonathan by the faceless individuals and mischief makers.

Agadaga averred that “Jonathan is an advocate of peace and stability and as such believes in the sanctity of human life and abhors crisis and reckless shedding of blood just like the former Governor of old Rivers State, late Chief Melford Okilo, revered political father in Ogbia Kingdom.”

He said further: “Nigerians have heard severally from former President Jonathan during his campaigns, when he told the world that his ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian, therefore it is a ruse, senseless, wicked and mischievous to link him with the formation or sponsor of the Niger Delta Avengers.

“The allegation is false, baseless, mischievous and wicked. It should be thrown to the waste bin of history by all right thinking Nigerians,” Agadaga said.

The national chairman of the body, pointed that “the devilish propaganda to rubbish the political status of the former president cannot be hidden with the hypocritical excuse of non performance and failing to develop the Niger Delta,” adding that Jonathan remains a voice on the national and international level.

“I wish to state in unequivocal terms that the allegation lacks substance and does not bear true reflection or semblance of the nature, original beliefs and intent of this prominent son of Ogbia who holds the revered title as Grand Commander of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Agadaga submitted.

He explained that if he (Dr Jonathan) was a promoter of crisis and violence, he would not have saved the nation and Nigerians from crisis, by his unprecedented timely acceptance of defeat in the 2015 polls and voluntarily hand over power to President Muhammadu Buhari.

Agadaga emphatically described Dr Jonathan as a strong advocate of oneness, unity and indivisibility of Nigeria.

According to him, during his (Dr Jonathan) tenure as governor in Bayelsa and as president there were no reported cases of extra-judicial killings and high profile assassination in the country.

He, however, warned militant groups such as RNDA, MEND and NDA against the sinister moves to pull down personalities in the region by engaging in names dropping or any other guise to blackmail the former president.