Baring any major progress in the ongoing dialogue
between the federal government and stakeholders in the Niger Delta to end the
attacks on oil and gas installations, the Nigerian military is in process of
wrapping up plans to launch a major offensive against the militants sabotaging
facilities in the oil-rich region.
However, the Movement for the Emancipation
of the Niger Delta (MEND) confirmed yesterday that the federal government was
in dialogue with militants, not criminals in the region, through oil companies
and the law enforcement agencies.
Despite the attempt at a détente, reliable
sources said that the federal government was losing patience with the militants
whose activities have disrupted oil and gas output and in turn revenue
accruable to the government.
It was on this basis that the Group
Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Maikanti
Baru, met with the Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonishakin, and
other top brass in the military last Thursday and appealed for their assistance
in securing and safeguarding oil and gas assets in the region.
The NNPC boss warned that the country was
in danger of not being able to execute the 2016 budget if the oil losses
brought on by the militancy are not nipped in the bud.
In response to the visit, Defence
Headquarters (DHQ) spokesman, Brig-Gen. Rabe Abubakar, yesterday said that the
military and other security agencies were leaving no stone unturned at
maintaining security across the nation, including the Niger Delta.
Abubakar vowed that the military “shall
continue to operate within our rules of engagement to deny the any group
freedom of movement and action in order to curtail their excesses for the
national interest of our country”.
He however stated that the military was
going to be patient until the outcome of the ongoing negotiations with the militants
and various stakeholders in the region before taking any major operational
steps.
“We are not going to be pushed to respond
to their criminal activities, as negotiations with our political leaders are
ongoing. However, that doesn’t mean that we have shut our eyes to the ongoing
sabotage in the region.
“We are mindful of our roles of maintaining
security and protecting our strategic infrastructure and assets in that general
area. We will maintain a higher level of professional presence to thwart any wanton
activities.”
In the same vein, a senior military officer
said after the meeting with the NNPC that the military was preparing and ready
for a major onslaught against the militants.
The officer said even though more resources
and equipment would be needed, especially for the Nigerian Navy, the time being
used for the dialogue would provide them the opportunity to gather intelligence
and fine-tune strategies with other security agencies on how to tackle the
menacing militants.
“I think we are ready to move and gather
more intelligence so that whether it is an all out offensive or surgical
operation, we will be able to hit them hard with minimal collateral damage.
“Things are shaping up with the
establishment of the Command and Control Centre for Operation Delta Safe,” the
source said.
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt-Gen.
Tukur Buratai, during a press briefing early this month confirmed that the
command and control of Niger Delta region had been handed over to the Nigerian
Navy.
Buratai said that the navy was more
conversant with the terrain and would have the edge in dealing with the
militants inside the creeks.
He, however, added that the army still
maintained an amphibious division and the land component to support the navy
and other security forces in a confrontation with the militants.
But as the military waits on the sidelines
to launch its offensive against the marauding militants, one of the groups in
the region, confirmed yesterday that the federal government was in dialogue
with militants through oil companies and the law enforcement agencies.
MEND said that the federal government would
not dialogue with criminals in finding a solution to the renewed crisis in the
Niger Delta.
The militant group, which no longer employs
violence in its agitation for development of the region and a greater share of
its resources, said in a statement by its spokesperson, Jomo Gbomo: “The
federal government made it clear during our meetings that negotiating with
criminals is out of the question.
“The Niger Delta Avengers and
internet-based militant groups such as Joint Revolutionary Council, Ultimate
Warriors etc. – an Ijaw opportunistic tribal assembly – which were compromised
to keep silent during the six years of Goodluck Jonathan’s misrule and neglect.
Pirates, pipeline vandals, oil thieves, commercial kidnappers, waterway
robbers, political thugs, and miscreants all fall under this category.
“The Movement for the Emancipation of the
Niger Delta (MEND) wishes to confirm that indeed it has been in preliminary
talks with the federal government through oil companies and law-enforcement
agencies as revealed by President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, July 21, 2016.
“These preliminary talks are the precursor
to a wider dialogue between the federal government and the MEND Aaron Team 2
peace initiative, which will seek to find solutions to the short, medium and
long-term future of the Niger Delta region.”
Its statement contrasted with that of the
Niger Delta Avengers, the group that has claimed responsibility for the recent
wave of bombings of oil assets, which at the weekend said it was not in talks
with the federal government.
Also, another group, the Ultimate Warriors,
rejected MEND’s statement on its dialogue with the government.
Describing the once dreaded MEND as mere
jobbers, the Ultimate Warriors maintained that the only agenda on the militant
group’s programme was to ensure the release of the Okah brothers currently in
jail in Nigeria and South Africa.
According to the group, the much talked
about MEND Aaron Team 2 which is positioning itself to lead the entire Niger
Delta agitators would only cause more trouble amidst the many groups in the
region.
A statement released on behalf of the group
by its spokesman, Sibiri Taiowoh, argued that having earlier rejected the
Amnesty Programme, the brothers should not benefit from it.
“Our attention has been drawn to a
statement credited to the defunct MEND that is now an internet-based group of
jobbers.
“We want to let the public know that the
MEND that we know under which the likes of Tompolo, Boyloaf and other
ex-warlords operated has since been disbanded by the group of ex-agitators who
were registered under the Amnesty Programme.
“The current MEND and its so-called Aaron
Team 2 is a concoction of the Okah brothers and family,” the group alleged.
The Ultimate Warriors said that the sole
aim of this so-called “MEND and the flaunted Aaron Team is to get Henry Okah
and Charles Okah pardon under the Presidential Amnesty Programme”.
“But they have forgotten that the Okah brothers
were actually the ones who tried to sabotage the Amnesty Programme initiated by
the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and former President Goodluck Jonathan.
“Is it the amnesty that the Okah brothers
declared as a sham and they never supported that they want the president to use
to pardon them, or what kind of clemency are they trying to push for the Okahs?
“Is it not funny that the MEND that is now
Okah’s business is asking for amnesty for the Niger Delta Avengers and giving
conditions to have them added to the dialogue team when the same MEND cannot
openly ask for amnesty for the Okah brothers, instead they are trying to sneak
into the house through the backdoor.
“We are against the MEND Aaron Team
arrangement because it is utterly against our mission and their aim is in
conflict with ours.
“What they are pushing for is freedom for
the Okahs that they are trying to use to sabotage our agitation for resource
control, rapid development, and freedom for the poor people of the Niger
Delta,” the group argued.
It maintained that MEND was nowhere when
this “new face of the struggle started”, adding: “They should stop trying to
lord it over us.”
“What is happening is that MEND is trying
to leverage on the renewed crisis to press for the release of the Okahs through
the Amnesty Programme which the duo failed to support at inception.
“We pity the statesmen that the so-called
MEND is assembling under their concocted Aaron Team 2. It is better they all
back out from the Aaron Team plot because the government is not prepared to
commence the dialogue from their perspective.
“More so, we haven’t given the so-called
MEND Aaron Team 2 any go- ahead to pick our representatives or constitute a
dialogue team for us.
“This struggle is not for Okah and MEND
cannot pick people for the entire Niger Delta.
“We are not going to hand it over to MEND
to constitute a team for us. If the government truly wants to dialogue, the
grandstanding by the so-called MEND might be a clog. This is our position,” it
said.
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