LAGOS MAY 24TH (URHOBOTODAY)-Ex-Niger Delta militants under the aegis of National Coalition of Niger Delta Ex-Agitators (NCNDE-A) has condemned calls made by Former Minister of Information, Chief Edwin Clark advising the federal government to dialogue with new militant group, Niger-Delta Avengers.
Israel Akpodoro, National President of NCNDE-A, while reacting to Clark’s plea berated the former Minister of Information for asking the Federal Government to dialogue with the Niger Delta Avengers.
According to him, “Acting like father to economic saboteurs and forming protective ring around criminals in the region won’t do us any good at this critical period of our nationhood.
“The call by Chief E.K. Clark, to say the least came as a rude shock and unbecoming of a man who would always want criminals of Ijaw extraction protected in the name of calls for dialogue.
“Nigerians would want to know from Chief Clark who the avengers, their sponsors and what they are avenging at this critical period in our nationhood?”
He warned that dialogue with the militants would only give rise to the emergence of other groups.
Akpodoro who noted that the calls for dialogue were ploy by Ijaw youths to arm-twist the government described the new militant groups as demagogues and evil doers who are out to foment trouble and stampede the government into paying them amnesty.
The Ex-militant urged the government to work with unconventional security who knows the terrain better than the Nigerian military to achieve result.
Akpodoro maintained that intelligence and information gathering by organised local youth under an unconventional security platform was capable of turning in criminals in large numbers to the law enforcement agencies.