The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) last night accused the federal government of bidding for time with its supposed dialogue with militants to acquire drones to fight its operatives attacking oil facilities in the Niger Delta region.
Advertisement
It continued: “We therefore warn the Chief of Army Staff to guard his utterances, refrain from making political and inflammatory statements and stick to his primary responsibility”.
The joint military Task force deployed to the Niger Delta, code-named: Operation Delta Safe, ODS, has averred that the military has the capacity to flush out militants from the region but was compelled to respect the dialogue option adopted by the Federal Government.
In any case, the attacks, which have so far cost Nigeria’s top spot among oil exporters in Africa to Angola, seem likely to continue until the government succeeds in meeting the various demands of the different groups.
The group said its intelligence agency had established that the said peace talk or dialogue was a delay tactic for the purchase of the drones. The militant group, which has vowed not to allow the export of even “one litre of crude in the Niger Delta”, has been targeting pipelines belonging to NNPC and foreign oil majors Shell, Eni and Chevron.
President Muhammadu Buhari had told the outgone German Ambassador that the Federal Government was in talks with the Niger Delta militants. It will not stop the Niger Delta Avengers from bringing the country’s economy to zero.
“MEND hereby makes it clear that General Buratai’s statement is insensitive, provocative, unprofessional and prejudicial to the fair outcome of the ongoing preliminary talks regarding the Niger Delta crisis between representatives of oil companies and security agencies, on the one hand; and the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), on the other hand”, the group said in a statement by its spokesman, Jomo Gbomo.
Advertisement
“The worse (sic) you can do is to kill poor innocent people which the military is good at but know the Nigeria Economy will suffer”, Agbinibo added.
