The Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta said on Tuesday that it had declared wanted an ex-militant leader, John Togo.
The JTF Command Headquarters in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, described Togo as a dangerous criminal that should not be taken for granted.
Spokesman for the JTF, Lt.-Col. Timothy Antigha, said in a statement that there was no way the task force could negotiate the surrender of or ceasefire with a criminal.
“For the avoidance of doubt, John Togo is someone who refused to embrace the Amnesty Programme and preferred to levy war on the state, the JTF needs him to surrender his militant camp and also account for the resurgence of kidnapping, rape, sea robbery, among other crimes perpetrated by his gang in the creeks of the Niger Delta,” he said.
Antigha warned that anyone harbouring Togo risked getting caught in the crossfire between the JTF and Togo.
The JTF said it was not “directly or through any proxy negotiating or planning to negotiate with anyone to facilitate the surrender or ceasefire for the wanted criminal.”
It said that the insinuations that it was negotiating with a Togo, who the task force said had brought untold hardship to the Niger Delta was intended to malign the good image of the JTF and misdirected the Federal Government as well as all Nigerians.