BEVERLY HILLS, October 09, (THEWILL) – President Muhammadu Buhari has revealed that decisive military action was still an option to deal with militancy in Niger Delta in order to stop oil pipeline bombings and vandalism if militants continued with sabotage.
Buhari issued the warning at the passing out parade of the 63rd regular course cadets at the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna, declaring that while his priority in resolving the crisis remains dialogue, he would not hesitate to deploy soldiers against the militants should dialogue fail.
He expressed happiness that the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East was being defeated but noted that militancy and other forms of emerging threats, including kidnapping, and cattle rustling have been having dangerous consequences on the economy.
“The repeated attacks in the Niger Delta have been impacting negatively on oil revenues. The scourge of illegal Small Arms and Light Weapons, and the drugs war, among others, remain issues which we are tackling seriously,” he said.
“Recently, we flagged off the Clean-up of Ogoniland, as part of the programmes to salvage the ravaged environment. We are convinced that undertaking such a monumental project will contribute to addressing the root causes of militancy in some parts of the Niger Delta region.
“However, for avoidance of doubt, let me state that other options are still open, including decisive military action.
“Today, criminal elements disguise in ethnic regalia to sabotage the country, largely for their selfish and parochial interests.
“However, our priority still remains constructive engagement of the stakeholders for peace.
“I reiterate the call on all Nigerians to give peace a chance and jettison negative tendencies and join government’s efforts aimed at addressing the numerous challenges in the task of building a better Nigeria.
“You will all recall that this Administration inherited a badly managed Boko Haram insurgency in the North East. The violence even spread beyond North Eastern states. But the capacity of the insurgents to launch attacks has now been significantly curtailed.
“Boko Haram’s capacity to hold territories has been obliterated. What is on-going now are mop up operations to clear the remnants of the insurgents from their numerous hideouts.
“All these successes are largely the efforts of our gallant troops of the Nigerian Military. I therefore commend our men and women in uniform and the intelligence community for their roles in dealing with the emerging threats.
“With terrorism and insurgency assuming global phenomena, international cooperation is now required to reverse the trend.
“We expect that other countries in the sub-region will continue to give the Multi-National Joint Task Force and our efforts maximum cooperation. Some of our diplomatic shuttles to Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Benin have significantly contributed to defeating Boko Haram and other terrorist groups in the sub-region.”
Story by David Oputah
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