We won’t bow to Avengers’ blackmail, says DHQ

The defence headquarters says it will not succumb to blackmail in its efforts to rid the Niger Delta region of “economic saboteurs”.

The warning came as a reaction of accusations that the military had been committing human rights abuses in the region.

In a statement issued earlier in the week, the Niger Delta Avengers, the militant group which had claimed responsibility for most of the attacks on oil installations, alleged that soldiers brutalised some elderly persons in Gbaramatu kingdom in Warri south-west local government area of the state.

The group also claimed that troops had been involved in rape, an allegation that was supported by different groups in the Niger Delta.

But Rabe Abubakar, spokesman of the DHQ, said the military was aware of “campaign of calumny sponsored by paid agents”.

“The military is not unmindful of the campaign of calumny against our soldiers by paid agents claiming that soldiers are harassing members of the public while performing their constitutional responsibility,” he said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

“It is pertinent to state that it is the same group of people that are wreaking havoc on the critical national assets that are blackmailing the armed forces and other security agencies to divert attention.

“The military and other security agencies will continue to discharge their lawful duties in the Niger Delta and any other part of the country in a most professional manner devoid of the claim by the criminal elements of harassment, intimidation and arrest. Our job is to secure infrastructural facilities and property of innocent citizens as well as containing the activities of criminal.

“The blackmail by sponsored persons would not deter the military from been focused and committed in its effort to fish out the vandals as the whole world is seeing what the so called militants are criminally doing in the attacks  of oil pipelines.

“The security measure put in place is not meant to intimidate any innocent individuals but to bring normalcy to our land. We urge the communities and well meaning Nigerians to cooperate with the security agencies in their bid to apprehend the perpetrators.

”The military would respond decisively in a professional manner at appropriate time.”