Nigerian army arrests 19 suspected militants

The Nigerian army has on June 17, Friday, announced the arrest of 19 suspected oil militants in the Niger Delta region. The soldiers foiled an attempt to blow up a pipeline operated by the Nigerian subsidiary of Italy’s Eni and arrested suspected pipeline thugs and oil thieves.

Vanguard reports that according to the statement, three coordinators of “several pipeline bombings” were among those arraigned in operations conducted across the oil-producing southern states of Bayelsa and Delta. 

The statement says: “One of the arrested suspects, John Oboka — aka Jamaica — confessed to being part of the group that bombed the Nigerian Petroleum Developing Company (NPDC) crude oil pipeline at Escravos.” However, there was no sign as to whether those suspected militants were connected to the Niger Delta Avengers, the high-profile group that has claimed a series of attacks on oil and gas pilelines since February.

The Federal government has offered to negotiate with the Avengers but the militant group has denied reports it has met government representatives. The attacks on the oil industry have cut production to an estimated 1.6 million barrels per day, well below the expected 2.2 million bpd.

“There is no ideal solution for the federal government, there are just hard and even harder choices to make,” Dirk Steffen, maritime security director at Risk Intelligence in Denmark, told AFP. 

The security operations “bear the risk of alienating the population in the Delta”, he said. “It can also encourage some armed groups to join the fight on the side of the Avengers to show solidarity.”

source: Vanguard

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