Hope for peace in the Niger Delta dimmed at the weekend as the Joint Military Task (JTF), code named Operation Restore Hope, raised the alarm that militants from a camp in Delta State were planning to attack major oil and gas installations in the region.
Briefing newsmen in the Effurun, Warri headquarters of the JTF, Coordinator, Joint Media Campaign Centre of the military outfit, Colonel Rabe Abubakar, said many oil and gas concerns in the region had been asked to take precautionary measures.
“Sequel to the recent dislodgment of militants from their Abiteye camp in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State by the troops of JTF, Operation Restore Hope, the militant group, led by Kingsley Opuye, is planning a reprisal attack on oil and gas installations as well as military formations in the Niger Delta,” Abubakar said.
Abubakar, however, said, the JTF was on top of the situation. As the JTF raised the fresh alarm, Ijaw communities in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State have accused the military outfit of using the alleged planned attacks as a ploy to raid their communities.
A community leader from Egbema kingdom, Mr. Godwin Perela, however, warned the JTF not use the latest alarm as a basis to attack Ijaw communities in the state.
“The alarm raised by the JTF is suspect; the outfit should not use this as a ploy to raid our communities because that it is what the military always does; I believe this is another ploy to re-enact Odi in Delta state,” Perela told the Nigerian Tribune on the telephone.