CHIEF of army staff Lt General Tukur Buratai has revealed that militants operating in the Niger Delta are using black magic against government troops as they step up their campaign to blow up oil installations and cripple the industry.
Over recent weeks, a new militant group known as the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) has sprung up in the region, attacking oil facilities with a vengeance. Only yesterday, the NDA blew up two crude trunk lines operated by Aiteo and Agip in Bayelsa State, just a few days after they destroyed a Chevron facility.
Despite President Muhammadu Buhari flooding the region with troops, the authorities have been unable to contain the NDA. Yesterday, Lt General Buratai vowed, however, that his troops will continue to take them on and they would not be deterred by the fact that the militants had resorted to the use of black magic.
Speaking in Port Harcourt the Rivers State capital after commissioning an apartment for soldiers and a giant size generating set at the Second Amphibious Brigade, Lt General Buratai said the army will not fold its hands and allow the groups to continue to kill its soldiers on locations in the region. He also called on communities in the region to help the military fish out members of the Niger Delta Avengers in their midst.
Lt General Buratai added: “They have been attacking our troop locations and killing our soldiers but we will not tolerate them. We will deal with them according to the law and we will look for them wherever they are.
"They are not agitating for anything, they are just into crime, so communities should be patriotic enough to expose these criminals. They have nothing to fear so they should help fish out these criminals killing our soldiers."
Earlier, the chief of defence staff, General Gabriel Olonisakin, had commissioned 12 refurbished gunboats in Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State and a 40 bed apartment for soldiers in the area. He too said security agencies will no longer allow criminals destroy national assets in the region.
Also speaking on the matter, the Bayelsa State information minister Jonathan Obuebite, condemned the twin attacks on the Aiteo and Agip facilities in his state, describing them as one too many. Mr Obuebite lamented the economic impact of destruction of the key oil facility and wondered why the militants would go to that extent.
He observed that in spite concerted efforts of the government to move against such atrocities, the militants were still unrepentant in their acts of vandalism. Mr Obuebite urged the NDA to embrace dialogue rather than the current approach to register their grievances, noting that the oil spill adversely affected those who reside in those areas.
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