*Niger Delta militants.
Oscarline Onwuemenyi
11 March 2017, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The militant group, Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate (NDGJM), yesterday explained the reason for the recent truce in the region and the halt in the bombing of pipelines.
The group, for several months, paralysed the activities of oil firms, especially the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) by destroying their pipelines network.
The group’s spokesman, Gen. Aldo Agbalaja, noted in a statement obtained by our correspondent yesterday that the NDGJM decided to be calm all the while to observe how things unfold in the region and to watch the government.
Agbalaja said the group is not dead but repositioning for better results.
NDGJM lauded recent steps taken by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo to convince the Niger Delta of the Federal Government’s commitment to ensuring peace in the region.
They, however, advised Osinbajo to fulfil the pledges made to the youths during his visit to the region.
“But we saw how the acting president goofed in his interaction with Niger Delta stakeholders. We saw how he failed to see that the Niger Delta does not belong to just one set of people, how he continued in the error of those before him, gave all the attention to only Ijaw people, especially in Delta State.
“He started on a faulty note, which if not corrected will make the situation worse. Divide and rule will not work, if the people of the upland part of the region are not treated with the same level of respect as those in the creeks, there will never be security for the oil assets you so much cherish,” Agbalaja stated.
While commending the government’s directive to oil companies to relocate their headquarters to the region, they said: “it only makes sense for the farmer to dwell near his farm.”
They warned that the practice of imposing one ethnic group over the other would be resisted and urged the government to give every community what is due to it, without imposing any group over another.
