LAGOS - IN his official reaction to Sunday’s bombing of the Atlas Cove Jetty by men of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND), Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, yesterday, warned the militants that the action must never repeat itself as the state was quite ready to respond to “this new security threat appropriately”.

Fashola, briefing newsmen on the development after an emergency meeting of the state Security Council condoled with the families of the officers and men of the Armed Forces who were victims of the attack.
Governor Raji Fashola briefing the newsmen after the Lagos State Security meeting at the State House, Marina, Lagos yesterday. Photo by Shola Oyelese


According to Fashola, the attack raises very new questions about what the agitation in the Niger Delta is all about.
He said that Lagos as the headquarters of the national press has been the medium of agitation and as a melting pot of nationalities; the people of Lagos have protected and hosted even displaced Niger Deltans.

He noted that it was quite unfair to have turned on Lagos, the Governor explained that the State itself has been a victim of years of neglect as a former federal capital which continues to serve as the host community to all ethnic communities and as economic nerve centre of the country.

He said: “Is Lagos not also a victim of years of neglect? Is this an agitation without limits, is a friendly and host State fair game?”

“If this (Atlas Cove Jetty bombing) was a mistake, we expect that it must never repeat itself as we will respond to this new security threat appropriately”.

JTF threatens ceasefire, says MEND

Meanwhile, less than twenty-four hours after it announced a 60-day ceasefire, effective 00.00 hours Wednesday, July 15, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND) said, yesterday that the armistice was under threat by the Joint Task Force (JTF), which allegedly dispatched seven gun boats with heavily armed troops from Warri, ostensibly to one of its camps located around border between Delta and Ondo states.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2009/07/16/fashola-warns-mend/

Mend better watch out - Fashola is a doing Governor.