The House of Representatives last Wednesday appeared to have made a tactical change in its approach to the on-going military onslaught in the Niger Delta as it directed its ad hoc Committee on Niger Delta crisis to invite the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Abdulrahman Danbazzau; Chief of Air Staff, Air vice Marshal Oluseyi Pentirin as well as the Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro, over the military operations in the oil rich region.

Speaker of the House, Dimeji Bankole who gave the directive at the commencement of its plenary disclosed that following the earlier motion by the House seeking expansion of the military operations that the House had been inundated with protests.

The Ad hoc committee on the Niger Delta crisis is expected to seek explanations from the Service Chiefs on the allegations of genocide and indiscriminate attacks on the local communities, especially the accompanying human catastrophe.

Of truth, the Niger Delta region a fortnight now has become a war-zone as the military Joint Task Force (JTF) launched its onslaught on militants' hideouts in the area. The fallout has been a major humanitarian crisis where many civilians have been rendered homeless.

Newspapers have been awash with photographs of hapless children, old men and women who have been displaced and are fleeing the spots where soldiers are battling it out with militants. In all armed conflict situations the world over, they are always caught in the theatre of war

Viewers have been treated to footages on television of people streaming out of the creeks to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.

Asume Osuoka of Social Action and the Gulf of Guinea Citizens Network, while reacting to the military offensive said, the claims by the JTF that it is doing a good job in dislodging militant camps can never justify the huge loss of innocent lives and mindless destruction of property. This, according to him, is not the panacea to Niger Delta crisis.

The challenge of the region has remained a thorny issue in Nigeria and could even be traced back to the colonial era. But the present military-militants face-off appears to have turned out to be a fight in a dark alley, as civilian casualty has remained a source of worry.

Even former Petroleum Minister, Professor Tam David West, had cautioned that the bombing of Niger Delta communities might trigger off a subterranean agitation because even the most formidable military force on earth cannot forever suppress a moral struggle for justice.

But it appears the glory of the struggle for the Niger Delta cause seems to be fading, the content and purpose for the agitation for a better condition for the people of the region is almost melting away, as criminal elements many believe seem to have hijacked the struggle and making nonsense of the genuine agitation of the people.

Amid the claims and counter-claims by the military authorities and the militants, the irrefutable point is that the operations in the creek of Delta State which had spread to neighboring towns across states have come with a toll, on the basis of the reported killings and destruction of properties.

The Niger Delta Civil Society Coalition (NDCSC) had also condemned the military action.

NDCSC Chairman and Chairman of the Niger Delta Technical Committee Sub-committee on Disarmament, Demobilisation and Rehabilitation, Anyakwee Nsirimovu, said the indiscriminate shelling and slaughtering of women, children and helpless seniors in the communities by federal soldiers, has no doubt put a lid on the mockery public relation exercise, flagged off recently by the President, in the name of amnesty and peaceful settlement in the region.

Not surprisingly the information about the actual scale of violence has been as murky as everything about the handling of the region over the years.

Director of Defence Information, Col. Chris Jemitola, while briefing the media in Abuja had told Nigerians that the ongoing operations were aimed at stopping the impunity of "deliberate and repeated unprovoked attacks on JTF troops, the sabotage of oil and gas facilities, the kidnapping for ransom of people and the killing of innocent citizens of the society including children, people of the clergy and very old citizens. "We have also seen the kidnapping and harassment of site workers and contractors carrying out socio-economic development of the area", he had added.

In the ensued trading of blames MEND mouthpiece, Jomo Gbomo, had in a revelation to Daily Independent said that JTF soldiers had tried to bully and extort money from visitors to a festival in Gbaramatu and that one thing led to another resulting in the militants sinking of two gunboats and killing the occupants, which included a lieutenant.

Caught in the renewed hostilities between the militants and troops of the Joint Task Force (JTF) in the deep creeks of the region, it is left to imagination the real damage done, the displacement, the refugees created, the death of citizens and infrastructural destruction including oil pipes.

Attempts at tackling the problems of the Niger Delta had been in haphazard manner, most times through palliative fire-brigade approach that had rarely paid off. The latest is the Ledum Mittee-led Technical Committee, which reports submitted on December 1 last year, though accepted by the federal government, yet remain in the cooler.

As the nation celebrated its ten years of uninterrupted democratic experience there is the need to genuinely tackle the Niger Delta challenge with all seriousness.

Pioneer Chairman All Progressive Grand Party (APGA) told Daily Independent that the President should without further hesitation order for the withdrawal of the JTF so as to give peace a chance.

'I do not think that military option is the best. Let the President use his prerogative and stop the hostility at the Niger Delta. Nobody doubts the strength of the nation's military but I think it is time to stop those soldiers from wrecking further havoc.

Let the government begin to implement most of the agreements it has reached with the people, let the development projects in the region be sustained and increased' he told Daily Independent.

The Chairman of the Technical Committee on the Niger Delta, Ledum Mitee, said the carnage precipitated by the ongoing clash between the Joint Task Force and militants would have been avoided if the Federal Government had commenced the implementation of the committee's report on disarmament, demobilization and rehabilitation.

Mitee who is also the President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has urged the Federal Government and the militants to halt hostilities and start the process of dialogue which he described as a better option than war.

He said: "Every war ends up at the talking table. So why don't we start with the talking instead of shooting because, once we start talking we can avoid killing, but if we start shooting there is bound to be killing and eventually a talk. So why don't we start talking."

'What the Niger Delta Need is genuine amnesty rather than a cosmetic one that lacks sincerity followed by massive development of the region. Military option will fail' Erekosima Onengiya, National President of Niger Delta Non-Violent Movement submitted on the best way to tackle the Niger Delta problem.

The general consensus is that region deserves peace and nothing less.