Victor Efeizomor
9 October 2008
Asaba — Chief of Defense Staff, Air Chief Marshal Paul Dike, has said that the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) in the Niger Delta region is not an army of occupation but a 'child of necessity.'
Air Marshal Dike stated this yesterday when he paid a courtesy call on the Delta state governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan at the Government House in Asaba along with some top military officers .
He said he was in the state to inspect the military formations and assess the level of success the JTF has recorded in its operations in the crisis-ridden region.
He expressed the military's readiness to ensure that peace and security returns to the Niger Delta region, pledging to sustain the standing relationship between the Delta state government and the military.
In his speech, Governor Uduaghan, lauded the efforts of the JTF in combating militancy and criminality in the region, even as he said that most of the youth activities in Delta state are not criminal in nature.
He however solicited the cooperation of the Chief of Defense Staff in curbing illegal bunkering in the waterways, saying that the military should also put some of the confiscated boats from sea pirates into proper custody.
The state governor, who stated that the problem of the Niger Delta region was a collective responsibility of all stakeholders, further appealed to the oil exploration companies operating in the region to create employment opportunities in order to curb restiveness among youths in the interest of peace and security.
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Paul, If you are not an army of occupation then what are you don't there - colluding with high sea pirates to smuggle crude oil? Just get the heck outta there b4 this tiny sparks lead to another civil war. If you think these activists movements concern only the residents of Niger Delta alone, you have not seen the wrath brewing among the Oduaas and the Arewa Youths. Don’t forget the game of "whack-a-mole" It is a game of attrition between the "haves" and the "have nots" And our numbers of "have-nots" surpass you "haves" by 300,000 to 1 margin. Who will blink first? We shall see in due course whether any army of soldiers who live in abject poverty similar to the conditions of the activists will turn the guns against his own kind when the chips are down. Nigeria needs to burn again b4 we can heal it of this current crop of old wines in new bottles. OBJ should've done what Rawlings did in Ghana, kill off all the old politicians from the dark days of corruption and coups so that fresh grass can have enough room to grow and save some space for the future generation.