Top Niger-Delta militant leaders have laid out
conditions under which they would stop the
renewed bombing of oil installations and
embrace peace.
In the past few days, the militants have been
causing havoc in the Niger Delta and major oil
depots in the South-West.
The militants said they would only drop their
arms when the Minister of State for
Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, meets and
negotiates with them.
The militants issued the position after a secret
meeting involving their leaders from the Niger
Delta and their counterparts in Alepo, Agric,
Epe, Ikorodu, Itoki and Igbokoda areas of
Lagos.
According to reports, the militants would not
want to back down until the Petroleum
Minister meets them and secures amnesty for
their members to avoid being persecuted by
security agencies.
The militant leaders also said after meeting
with the minister, they would thereafter take
over the responsibility of tracking and
exposing those bent on causing further
destruction to all facilities and meting our
appropriate punishment to them.
They said they had been pleading for amnesty
since the days of the President Jonathan’s
administration but nobody took them into
consideration and were ready to work with the
new administration to bring about an end to
oil bunkering and pipeline vandalisation in the
Niger Delta region and the South-West.
Levi said: “We are ready to drop our arms and
denounce hostility with the government on the
condition that the Minister of Petroleum will
meet with us and hear our own side of the
story. We are not against the government but
we have genuine issues yet to be addressed
by successive administrations in this country.
“We are ready to commence discussion and
denounce association with this present
situation. From now henceforth, we are ready
to block any channel for anyone not to go
through to bomb oil pipelines.”
The bombing of oil installations in the Niger
Delta commenced last week as militants blew
up major oil and gas pipelines in the area.
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