Joint Military Task Force (JTF) Operation Delta Safe (ODS) yesterday vowed any secessionist group within its Area of Responsibility (AoR) would be arrested and treated like criminals. ODS restated the commitment of the military to keep Nigeria united. It insisted that the military under the current administration is well-equipped to crush any threat against the country. A group of militants, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), which claimed responsibility for all the bombings of oil installations, threatened to declare the Niger Delta Republic on October 1.
NDA, in its statement, said: โThe October 1st, declaration of independence is still sacrosanct if the Nigerian government fails to retrace its step by restructuring this countryโ.
The threat came few weeks after another group, Adaka Boro Avengers (ABA) dropped the idea of declaring the republic on August 1 at Kaiama, the hometown of the late Ijaw hero, Isaac Adaka Boro in Kolokuma-Opokuma, Bayelsa State.
ABA abandoned its threat after the JTF responded by deploying troops and military hardware to frustrate the declaration. Speaking yesterday, the Commander ODS, Rear Admiral, Joseph Okojie, said it was high time people embraced the peace and stopped threatening the country. He added the military would not allow any criminal gang to break the country. Okojie said though the military outfit would not join issues with faceless criminal gangs, it would not abdicate its operations to arrest and deal with criminals.
According to him, โWe are properly equipped to handle all these situations. We wonโt be joining issues with people who hide behind faceless organisations to issue threats.
โWe are doing our job and at the appropriate time people will begin to see the results. We are well-equipped but we are not at war. We are in asymmetrical environment and we are well-equipped to handle issues in this environment and that is why despite our operations you wonโt get reports of casualties or collateral damage. We are working. But people should be law-abiding.โ
Emphasising that the Niger Delta must be kept safe in line with the mandate of the military outfit, the JTF commander said militants are criminal and must be treated as such. He said the efforts of the ODS in keeping Niger Delta and critical assets safe have been yielding positive results, the spate of bombings had been reduced apart from the isolated case of Friday in Delta State where some miscreants ruptured a pipeline.
He said: โWhoever threatens the unity of the country is a criminal. As far as we are concerned, any militant is a criminal and our operation is to flush criminals out of the region to keep it safe.
โNo criminal can challenge the military because we are saddled with the responsibility of protecting the territorial integrity of the country.โ
