In what could signal fresh trouble in Nigeria’s oil producing Niger Delta region, the country’s military said Friday that militant groups in the region are training 1,000 new recruits at a camp in South-west Ondo state.
A spokesman for the military Joint Task Force (JTF) deployed to the restive region, Lt.-Col. Rabe Abubakar, said in a statement that the training was being funded by oil thieves, who are angered by the military’s stepped up campaign to stop oil bunkering (stealing).
He said the new recruits were being trained “in long range shooting, handling of various sophisticated weapons and the use of explosives alike.”
The military spokesman said the training was aimed at raising the number needed for the militants “to renew hostilities and cause unnecessary tension in the Niger Delta and also to further derail the relative peace already being enjoyed by the people of Bayelsa and Delta States.”
The allegation could not be independently confirmed, but militants and the military have always traded accusations on the situation in the oil region, where militant attacks have slashed Nigeria’s oil production by one fifth.