Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) yesterday called the bluff of the Nigerian military, saying no amount of intimidation can make them abandon their struggle for the restructuring of Nigeria.
They accused the military of deceiving Nigerians by showing false videos of how they carried out bombardment of some illegal bunkering camps in the Niger Delta region.
The militants described the military’s action “as unprofessional and a ploy to intimidate them with scrap jet bombers”, adding that they would not be intimidated, even if more jet bombers were deployed to the region.
“They can deploy fourth generation jet-bombers but that will not stop us from fighting for our people. We, hereby, challenge the military to share with the public the militants killed in the so-called air strike. We are very sure that they won’t share the images of militants killed because non was killed except innocent women and children,” NDA spokesman, Brigadier General Mudoch Agbinibo, said.
“What we are saying is that the country should be restructured. The call for restructuring of Nigeria has gone beyond the NDA. The only group of persons against the restructuring is the Aso Rock Villa. The Federal Government should just listen to the voice of the citizens, instead of playing the deaf ear game,” the militants added.
“We are saying that @agbiniboND is our new official twitter account handle. Twitter can block or suspend our account but they cannot stop or block our struggle,” they further said in a one-page statement made available to newsmen.
The militants, however, vowed to bomb more oil pipelines in the region and urged President Muhammadu Buhari “to listen to voice of reason, instead of threatening us on the pages of newspapers.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Navy yesterday admonished the militants to embrace the olive branch extended to them by the Federal Government or face its wrath.
Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Ibok-Ette Ibas, in an interview with Daily Sun, warned that the Navy has the capacity to wipe out militancy completely from the region.
He said the force is, at the moment, being restrained from doing so because of government’s ongoing negotiation with the militants.
Vice Admiral Ibas said should the dialogue between the various tiers of government and the militants fail, the military would descend heavily on the militants.
Ibas said no responsible government, anywhere in the world, would fold its arm and watch a group of militants take laws into their hands by disrupting the peace and economy of its nation.
He lauded President Muhammadu Buhari for strengthening the might of navy and the military generally. He explained that the incumbent administration, more than anyone before it in the last few decades, has made enormous investments in the procurement of facilities for the force.
He insisted that the navy has done well, especially, in the fight against insurgency and pirates.
SUN NEWS
