Don’t negotiate with Avengers, ex-militants tell FG

SCORES of ex-Niger Delta militants, on Monday warned the Federal Government against going ahead with its proposed dialogue with the Niger Delta Avengers. They argued that doing so would fuel full-scale militancy in the volatile region.

The militants under the aegis of the National Coalition of Niger Delta Ex-Agitators (NCNDE-A) made this known in a communiqué issued at the end of its meeting held in Ughelli, Delta State, following recent threat by a new militant group, Otorogu Liberation Force.

The President of NCNDE-A, Israel Akpodoro, who spoke on behalf of the former militants, said they were opposing the proposed dialogue as the demands of the Niger Delta Avengers were not germane but politically-motivated.

Akpodoro noted that dialogue was a ploy by some political leaders in the region to stampede the Federal Government into more troubles in the region.

The first consequence of such decision, he said, would be to push youths of other ethnic groups to take up arms against the government.

Akpodoro posited that rather than negotiating with the people who were fighting political cause, government should focus its energy on addressing the injustice occasioned by the marginalisation of the Phase 3 of the amnesty programme.

He noted that ex-militants from other ethnic nationalities including Urhobo, Isoko, Itsekiri and Ndokwa were wrongfully schemed out of the programme, an attitude, he said, was already getting the youths in the region.