Unic Press UK: Niger Delta militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) is suspected to be the mastermind of an attack that set ablaze the Escravos pipeline that connects Lagos (Lagos State) and Warri (Delta State); specifically the gas trunkline that is located at Ogbe-Ijoh community.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who recently threatened to deal with Niger Delta militants, seem to have softened his stance. Speaking at a parley with Director of the Royal Dutch Shell, Andrew Brown, Buhari said: The federal government will review the Amnesty programme for Niger Delta militants.
The UK government, through its foreign minister, Philip Hammond, advised the Nigerian government to address the primary causes of militancy in the Niger Delta as the use of military force against the militants could end in a catastrophe.
“It’s obviously a major concern,” Hammond told reporters on the sidelines of a regional security conference in Abuja when asked about the Delta situation.
“The idea that your answer is by moving big chunks of the Nigerian army to the Delta simply doesn’t work,” he said, adding that the army did not have the capacity while fighting Boko Haram jihadists in the north. “It won’t deal with the underlying issues.”
“Buhari has got to show as a president from the north that he is not ignoring the Delta, that he is engaging with the challenges in the Delta,” Hammond said.
