Niger Delta Avengers deny peace talks with the government

President Muhammadu Buhari had, Thursday, confirmed that his government was in dialogue with Niger Delta militants towards putting a stop to pipeline vandalism and violence being experienced in the region.

Buhari in a statement said that his administration were analyzing the Amnesty Program inherited from the previous administration with the objective of fulfilling any outstanding commitments previously made.

President Muhammadu Buhari had during a farewell meeting with the outgoing Ambassador to Germany, Mr. Michael Zinner, on Thursday said that the FG was holding talks with militants through oil companies. “We will do our best for the country”, President Buhari said.

The federal government of Nigeria has “clashed” with militants in the Niger Delta region over claims that there were ongoing peace talks between the two sides.

“The 2016 national budget plan was based on 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil production”, he said.

“If we are to engage in any peace talk we made it clear that the worldwide community must be part of it”, the statement added. We are studying the instruments.

While the Avengers, in a statement by its spokesman, Mudoch Agbinibo, denied being in any talks with the federal government, the IYC, in a statement circulated by its spokesman, Eric Omare, expressed at the president’s claim to using foreigners (oil companies) to negotiate on the nation’s behalf. The President knows our demands.

The former oil warlord said in an open letter to Buhari on Friday that his 84-year-old father had been brutalised by the military during a recent hunt for the Avengers in his community in southern Delta state.

“This can only happen when President Buhari as the political leader of Nigeria come down to the negotiation table”. “So they should stop deceiving the worldwide oil companies, the general public and the global community”, it added.

“Only a honest and holistic dialogue with the people of the Niger Delta region. can bring permanent peace”, the youth council of the Ijaw group said in a statement.

The group has also suggested that the Nigerian Army refuses to acknowledge when they carry out their attacks on oil pipelines in the oil-rich Niger Delta region.