Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Owoye Azazi, on Wednesday directed the Commander of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta, Maj.-Gen Lawrence Ngubane, to beef up security around oil workers and strategic oil locations in the Niger Delta.
A source in the JTF, who disclosed this, said Azazi ordered the JTF to nip any violent action by Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta in the bud.
Ijaw youth leaders will meet in Oporoza, Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State on Saturday to discuss the fate of the leader of the MEND, Mr. Henry Okah.
The meeting which will also have the leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujaheedeen Asari-Dokubo, is sequel to a report by a British news agency, Reuters that Okah was killed whiled being quizzed in Kaduna.
The Secretary of the Federal Government Committee on Peace and Conflict Resolution in the Niger Delta, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, confirmed the Oporoza meeting in a telephone interview with our correspondent in Warri.
The meeting which will be hosted by a notable Niger Delta activist, Chief Government Ekpomupolo, will be attended by all past and present leaders of the Ijaw Youth Council and other Ijaw youth organisations in the region.
The development came just as the Okah, who was arrested at the Luanda Airport on September 3, 2007 for alleged gun-running, was . extradited to Nigeria on February 14, 2008 by the Angolan authorities.
The Reuters report had prompted MEND to issue a 24-hour ultimatum to the government to confirm or deny his death. It also threatened violence in the Niger Delta.
But the JTF had described as a hoax the reported killing of the MEND leader.
It was also gathered on Wednesday that MEND had contacted two Senior Advocates of Nigeria � Chief Gani Fawehinmi and Prof. Itse Sagay � to drag the Federal Government to court over Okah.
Also said to have been contacted by the group is the President of the West African Bar Association, Mr. Femi Falana.
Our source added that the legal battle to ascertain the fate of the militant leader would commence in Abuja on Thursday.
Our correspondents gathered that the report credited to MEND by Reuters was initiated to compel the government to make a categorical statement on the fate of Okah, especially his whereabouts.