The Commander of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta, Operation Restore Hope, Brig.-Gen. Wuyep Rimtip, has asked the Federal Government to ignore the calls for the withdrawal of the federal troops from the region.
Rimtip said it was premature to canvass the withdrawal of the troops in the face of the prevailing insecurity in the region.
He said the calls coming from highly placed individuals in the region were self-seeking and ill-motivated and asked the Federal Government to disregard them.
The JTF boss, who reacted to the agitation in certain quarters in the region that the security agency had overstayed its usefulness, added that time was not ripe to take such an action.
He said basic conditions required for the removal of the military from the region were lacking, adding that peace was still elusive in the area.
Some notable community and youth leaders in the region, including the Ijaw National Leader, Chief Edwin Clark, have demanded the withdrawal of the armed forces from the area as a condition for a lasting peace.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government on Monday said it had acquired additional operational boats for the Nigerian Navy for it to address the unrest in the Niger Delta region.
This came after the Chief of Naval Satff, Vice-Admiral Ishaya Ibrahim, declared that the navy was actually at crossroads on how to handle the myriads of problems facing it, especially the Niger Delta unrest.
President Umaru Yar‘Adua who was represented by the Minister of State for Defence, Mrs. Fidelia Njeze, stated this at the opening of the Chief of Naval Staff Annual Training Conference in Yola, Adamawa State.
He said government was very mindful of the fact that without the repositioning of the navy to protect and sustain the nation‘s wealth in the Niger Delta region, the country‘s economic future might be in jeopardy.
Consequently, Yar‘Adua said government was bent on fully equipping the navy to secure the nation‘s maritime environment, protect its wealth in the Gulf of Guinea region, and stem unrest in the Niger Delta.
He said, “This administration is mindful of the needs of the Nigerian Navy to reposition itself to effectively provide security in the Niger Delta, the entire maritime environment and in the Gulf of Guinea in order to meet emerging regional and global challenges.”
Also, the Chairman of the Niger Delta Technical Committee, Mr. Ledum Mittee, on Monday, said the committee would hand in its final report to the Federal Government within the next three weeks.
Mitee, who made this known in an exclusive interview with our correspondent in Port Harcourt, insisted that the committee could not have tackled in a jiffy, a 50-year crisis condition in the region.