Alleged oil theft: Sack JTF commander now before it is too late - Niger Delta militants warn Buhari

macfranc007 June 29, 2018 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Naija news 24/7 Nurudeen Lawal

- A coalition of Niger Delta militants called on President Buhari to sack the commander of Joint Task Force (Operation Delta Safe)

- The group accused the JTF commander of being involved in illegal oil bunkering

- It also called on the EFCC to probe the JTF commander

A coalition of Niger Delta militants has called for the sacking of Rear Admiral Apochi Suleiman as the Commander of the Joint Task Force (Operation Delta Safe), alleging his involvement in illegal oil bunkering in the region.

The group known as the Coalition of Niger Delta Agitators also warned that it would be difficult to implement the 2018 budget if the current leadership of the JTF was allowed to continue in the Niger Delta region, The Punch reports.

It noted in a statement issued on Thursday, June 28, and signed by 13 different militant groups that it had investigated allegations against the current leadership of the JTF and had found the JTF, Operation Delta Safe culpable, adding that the activities of the joint task force was adversely affecting the economic growth of the region and the entire country.

Signatories to the statement were John Duku of the Niger Delta Watchdogs, who is also the convener of the coalition; Ekpo Ekpo (Niger Delta Volunteers), Osarolor Nedam (Niger Delta Warriors), Henry Okon Etete (Niger Delta Peoples Fighters) and Asukwo Henshaw (Bakassi Freedom Fighters).

Other signatories of the statement were Inibeghe Adams (Niger Delta Freedom Mandate) Abiye Tariah (Niger Delta Development Network), Ibinabo Horsfall (Niger Delta Movement for Justice) and Duke Emmanson (Niger Delta Fighters Network), Joshua Ebere (Renewed Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta), Jeremiah Anthony (Movement for Actualisation of Niger Delta Republic), Francis Okoroafor (Niger Delta Freedom Redemption Army) and Nelson Walter (Niger Delta Liberty Organisation).

NAIJ.com gathered that the coalition called on President Muhammadu Buhari to remove Suleiman as the JTF commander in the oil-rich region, even as it urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other relevant bodies to immediately begin a probe of the activities of the JTF commander.

The coalition said: “After receiving report from our intelligence and surveillance units and all the affiliate groups of the Coalition of Niger Delta Agitators across the region and beyond, which we mandated to investigate the activities of the JTF commander in the Niger Delta, the shocking report indicted the JTF and its leadership of complicity and involvement in illegal oil bunkering of great magnitude in the Niger Delta.

“After careful deliberation on the report, we call on the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces to order the immediate removal of the JTF Commander, Rear Admiral Apochi Suleiman, from the Niger Delta region.

“We, therefore, call on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices & other related offences Commission, Office of the National Security Adviser and military authorities to, as a matter of urgency, remove and probe the activities of JTF Commander, Rear Admiral Apochi Suleiman, before it is too late.

“We also use this medium to call on the Ministry of Defence and military authorities to restructure the Joint Task Force (Operation Delta Safe) with immediate effect in order to avoid breakdown of law and order because we will not sit down and watch them connive and steal millions of crude oil barrels on a daily basis.”

When contacted to speak on the allegation against Suleiman and the JTF in the region, the spokesman for Operation Niger Delta Safe, Ibrahim Abdullahi, declined to react to the allegations via phone call, The Punch reported.

“I cannot speak with you because I don’t know you; I don’t know where you are calling from,” he was quoted to have said.

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NAIJ.com previously reported that militants from the Niger Delta allegedly declared all National Assembly members from the region as ‘enemies of development’ asking them to be ready to have their properties in the zone blown up for consenting to the cutback of funds to key infrastructural projects for the area in the 2018 budget.

The budget was recently signed by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The militants reportedly met at the Benin River, Egbema in Delta state, to review the budgetary provisions for various projects in the region and compared them with the wealth obtained from the region’s crude oil.

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