<div><p>A Nigerian militant leader on Friday urged rebels who shunned a government amnesty to give dialogue a chance, but warned that an immediate resumption of violence was a "real" danger.</p><p>Henry Okah, the leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), a group whose audacious attacks on Nigeria's oil industry have helped play havoc with oil prices on the world market, said he saw government moves toward dialogue with the oil rebels as a step in the right direction.</p><p>In a bid to halt the violence in this OPEC member, the administration in Abuja offered unconditional pardon to armed activists who laid down their arms and said it was open to dialogue.</p><p>It also freed Okah in July after two years in jail for high treason and arms trafficking.</p><p>"The government is walking in the right direction," Okah told AFP in an e-mail interview, although he did not rule out a resumption of hostilities if the oil producing region's concerns were not resolved.</p><p>"I expect those still armed to give this process a chance," he added, just days after his first ever talks with President Umaru Yar'Adua.</p><p>Key MEND commanders have accepted the amnesty, but fighters refused to lay down arms, saying the deal was a "charade" which failed to address the key issues of under-development and injustice in the delta.</p><p>During his "brief encounter" with Yar'Adua, Okah "assured of (his) willingness to work towards a lasting peace," but warned that arms surrender alone was no guarantee of lasting peace in the restive region. The government has to "correct decades of injustice in the Niger delta," he said.</p><p>Yar'Adua's office described the meeting as "very fruitful."</p><p>"I think he has a good heart. Let's see how far that will take him and his government towards a just resolution in the Niger Delta," said Okah, in the interview conducted from South Africa where he is based.</p><p>But "I will not be involved in disarming those who have decided to hang on to weapons until the entire region comes to agreement with the federal government on the points of agitation by the people of the Niger Delta," he said.</p><p>A key demand of the MEND and other militants in the area is that local impoverished communities in the nine oil producing states must benefit from the region's oil wealth.</p><p>"I am certain if the country does not address this nagging issue, violence will resume sooner, (rather) than later. The possibility of an immediate return to violence is real," he said.</p><p>"It is common knowledge that there are still thousands of weapons in the creeks. That there are thousands of fighters still willing to fight is not news either," Okah warned.</p><p>Reports emerged on Friday that Yar'Adua might soon meet the MEND appointed negotiating team, which includes the country's celebrity and 1986 Nobel literature laureate Wole Soyinka.</p><p>MEND ordered a truce in July to allow for possible talks with government, but the ceasefire expired last week.</p><p>Last week it was reported Nigeria planned to offer inhabitants of the oil-producing Niger Delta region an extra 10 percent of oil and gas revenue in a bid to end the rebellion.</p><p>Under the current 1999 constitution, which stipulates that all natural resources belong to the federal government, the region gets 13 percent of oil income, a law which Okah said "has endorsed robbery by the state."</p><p>"The land and all in it belongs to the people of the Niger Delta," claims Okah.</p><p>MEND's three-year campaign has slashed oil output in Nigeria, the world's eighth largest exporter, by a third.</p><p>"Everyone wants peace. We only differ from the government by desiring justice in addition to peace," said Okah.</p><p>Hundreds of oil workers, including dozens of foreigners, have been targets of kidnapping by MEND and other groups in the Delta region. It has attacked pipelines and offshore facilities and even Lagos harbour.</p><p>Although there is no precise death toll, several hundred fighters and civilians have been killed in the region since 2006.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=61813686&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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