Civil Society Coalition for Mandate Protection (CSC-MAP) and the National Coalition of Civil Society Groups (NCCSG) have called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to put an end to the tradition of using armed militants to protect oil pipelines in the Niger Delta.
The group warned that such practice, if not addressed may promote another round of armed conflict and violence in the oil-rich region as well as become a major threat to the stability of Nigeria.
CSC-MAP, a coalition of 95 civil society groups spread across the country and NCCSG, made the call on Wednesday in a joint statement, saying that a widespread fear was ongoing that a particularly armed militant in the Niger Delta was allegedly using proceeds of pipeline protection to import illicit weapons into the country.
The groups, while sounding the note of warning, alleged that the said militant had the preconceived plan to divide Nigeria through armed conflict that would start from the Niger Delta, calling on President Tinubu to instead focus on engaging indigenous professional security companies in the Niger Delta who were genuinely committed to the protection of oil pipelines instead of funding armed groups that constitute a threat to national security.
“It is not right to fund armed and separatist groups that have fought Nigeria and other ethnic groups in the Niger Delta. The leaders of the armed groups were once declared wanted by the Nigerian State. It is wrong to continue to provide resources for them which might empower them to import illicit weapons into Nigeria,” the statement said.
CSC-MAP and NCCSG, in the statement, further alleged that a particular militant was currently involved in high caliber bribery of top government officials and political office holders to perpetrate himself and sustain his armed dominion in the Niger-Delta, but quickly said they were preparing a letter to President Tinubu and all members of the National Assembly to expose the militant’s crime against Nigerians and the people of the Niger-Delta.
This was just as they flayed a situation whereby a particular militant continued to enjoy the protection of a few armed soldiers with a full truckload of soldiers, insisting that the Federal Government should instead engage genuine representatives of the people of the Niger Delta in securing pipelines and not armed militants to do the job.
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