‘Niger Delta Avengers Have Killed 50 Security Operatives So Far’

The group also lamented the destruction by the indigenous people of Biafra (IPOB) and the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) saying only last week the two group took on security operatives in several south-eastern cities leading to the killing of several security personnel who were on duty for the country.

According to the group, “IPOB members are threatening to kill Nigerian soldiers if they dare to protect the national infrastructure as well as economic assets in the Niger Delta region.

Addressing news men in Jos , the Plateau state capital the coordinator of the group, Comrade Okpokwu Ogenyi , said from the reports they have received so far, the ethnic agitators were bearing arms against the country and “these are the weapons they are using to kill security operatives.”

He pointed out that Nigerians must note that “the weapons in question are neither the type for hunting game nor are they licensed; so possession of these arms and explosives alone constitute crimes even when they are not used for killing anyone.”

Ogenyi said: “Sadly, we further observe that leaders from the South-South and South-East zones where these groups operate, rather than play the roles expected of them and condemn these heinous crimes are obliquely endorsing the criminality by hyping dialogue without calling the killer squads on the loose to order.

“As a responsible body, the Conference of Minority Tribes condemns these attacks and killing of security operatives in the strongest terms possible as it is barbaric, evil, out of tune with contemporary approaches to agitation and definitely contrived to make minority ethnic groups suffer.”

According to the group, “all security officers in Nigeria have rights to life and any group of persons under any guise who uses arms against them declares war on the Nigerian State and should not expect to be treated less than insurrection in any way.

“Amnesty International and all human rights organization are by this briefing called to defend the families of security agents in Nigeria, who are targets of ethnic militias, to condemn and this injustice against persons who risk their lives that others may live”.

The group while calling for peace stressed that “the crisis entrepreneurs should have a rethink adding that no individual, group or people have the monopoly of violence, which makes us worried that it is a matter of time before other ethnic nationals whose sons are being killed in service to Nigeria would vent their grievances on Niger Delta Avengers, IPOB and MASSOB.

“We see the current situation an attempt to destabilise President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration by those who had threatened to do just what is happening now and by those who want to use the cover of the crises to evade prosecution for corruption charges against them.

Comrade Ogenyi also appealed to President Buhari to thoroughly weigh the situation before succumbing to those parroting “carrot and stick approach because we must end the culture of incentivizing criminality with monetized amnesty.”

He noted that “youths of all ethnicity must learn to work for money as opposed to being paid to off crime while appealing to security operatives to update their strategies for dealing with these criminal elements to minimize casualty and prioritize arrests and intelligence gathering that will expose the sponsors of these crises. This so called group are not agitators but ethnic aggressors who will do anything to make other ethnic nationalities miserable.”