Kachikwu said the military would scale back its campaign to hunt down the militants in the southern region, which produces much of Nigeria’s oil output.
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The government has now followed up that decision by withdrawing troops in the region.
A major breakthrough has been recorded in the fight against renewed militant activities and oil pipelines vandalism in the Niger Delta region of the country, Tuesday, when the Nigerian Navy said it has arrested a militant kingpin who is best described as the coordinator of recent attacks on NNPC and Chevron oil facilities in the region.
In this revival of Niger Delta militancy, the NDA replaces the earlier Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which launched attacks on the oil infrastructure in the 2000s.
The meeting, according to spokesperson for the Vice President, Laolu Akande was convened on the instruction of President Muhammadu Buhari who is not the country with the aim of developing common strategies between the federal government and Niger Delta states on to deal with the resurgent militant attacks on the nation’s oil installations.
Speaking to journalists after Tuesday’s meeting, Delta state governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, said, “We have also agreed that there is a need to distill military operations directly in communities, but the military need to actually remain on our waterways to ensure that we adequately man the waterways itself while we engage the communities and that engagement processis starting any moment from now”.
We share the concerns of all Nigerians about these attacks.
Their agitations continue despite the flagging off by the Nigerian government of the cleaning up of the Niger Delta region, which has over the years been polluted by the activities of oil companies.
“We have taken a lot of decisions which will help us mitigate what is going on now in the states particularly Bayelsa and Delta”.
The United States embassy in Abuja issued a statement today endorsing dialogue between the Nigerian government and militants in the Niger Delta region.
“We were briefed by the service chiefs and the governors also have their own perspectives along with the minister of state for petroleum”.
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Others at the meeting include the governors of Edo, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Ondo and Rivers State.
