The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has denied it purchased assorted weapons from Nigerian soldiers who were jailed for life by a military court on Tuesday. The six, including an Army Major, were convicted for stealing and selling 7,000 assorted weapons worth 100 million naira (US$850,000) to Niger Delta’s largest militant group. But in its reaction to the judgement, contained in a statement e-mailed to journalists Wednesday night, MEND said it ”never got its weapons from the Nigerian military except for those seized during fighting or those abandoned by soldiers”. It also condemned what it called the ‘double standards’ by the Nigerian government, saying ”if the men supplied weapons to militants and MEND as claimed, the charge ought to have read treason and terrorism as charged on Henry Okah”. Okah, MEND’s leader, is currently being tried for treason, gun-running and other charges by a Nigerian court, after he was arrested in Angola and extradited to Nigeria earlier this year.
