PORT HARCOURT -The military Joint Task Force deployed in the Niger Delta, said on Sunday that it had uncovered a plot by militants to cause mayhem and destabilise Rivers State.
Its spokesman, Lt.-Col. Sagir Musa, told newsmen that militant groups had started recruitment of youths to replace those already killed by men of the task force.
“The essence is to replace their colleagues killed by the Joint Task Force.”
“We want to inform the public of the trend which needs to be collectively checked,” he said.
Musa said the Joint Task Force was monitoring the situation and was determined to contain it.
“The militants are planning to attack security forces at their guard locations and major national assets in the state,” he told newsmen.
The militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) had been having a running battle with the Joint Task Force when the former declared an oil war tagged “Operation Barbarosa”.
MEND said that the war was designed to avenge “unprovoked” attack on Rivers communities by the troops in which scores of people were allegedly killed and many rendered homeless.
Its spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, said that the oil war would also nibble at the oil industry until oil exports was reduced to zero level.
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