The federal government insisted that it is negotiating with Niger Delta militants

Militants from the region have continued the vandalism of oil and gas pipeline that has reduced the level of oil production in the country.

 The Niger Delta Avengers which is considered the deadliest has claimed responsibility for most of the violent vandalism of pipelines in the region with the promise that it will not stop its destructive mission. The group restated its position that it is not in any meeting with the federal government as against the claim made by President Muhammadu Buhari that it is in talk with the militants.


 In reactions to President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement on Thursday that the government was already negotiating with militant groups in the oil producing states, the group said Buhari, however, did not mention the groups participating in the dialogue. The president said his government was open to adopting some of the policies put in place by past governments on the amnesty programme as a way of curbing militancy, adding that he understood the plight of the militants. “We are studying the instruments.

We have to secure the environment, otherwise investment will not come,” Buhari said: “We understand their feelings, we will do our best for the country.” But in a statement by its spokesman, Mudoch Agbinibo, and published on its website, the Avengers said it was “not aware of any peace talk” with the government. The Punch however reports that the federal government insisted that it was in talk with militants to reach a level of negotiation.

 Niger Delta Avengers Officials at the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation stated that the government was in talks with the militants. They argued that those that claimed not to be on the negotiation table with the government were either aggrieved or were not invited raising the possibility that Niger Delta Avengers were not invited for negotiation. Meanwhile, one of the leaders of the Niger Delta Avengers granted an interview to the BBC news. The group claimed that it is standing behind a series of attacks comprising one attack on a pipeline that shut down one of Nigeria’s main oil export terminals. Commander Johnson Biboye, his pseudonym, has stated that his group was responsible for several recent attacks. He denied giving more details quoting operational security. According to him, his men had little choice but to return to militancy