Asaba — The Joint military Task Force (JTF) yesterday debunked militants' claim over the fire outbreak at a Chevron in Delta State Tuesday.

At Chevron's flow station at Utonana, Warri South-West Local Government Area of the state yesterday, at about 9pm the JTF said a fire resulted from a system failure from one of the platforms which was out of bounds to all COSF. There was no casualty on troops and company workers. According to JTF, the general public should ignore any claims by some groups that the fire was caused by an act of sabotage by militants and their affiliated group - the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), saying, "it was rather caused by system failure of a platform in the flow station".

The spokesperson of the JTF, Col. Rabe Abubakar said, "If any militant group and their collaborators want a show of force, we are ready, if they want to test their strength; they are welcome as we do not engage in media war and cheap popularity". Rabe said, "Therefore, this claim and all other claims by any militant group should be disregarded in its entirety. Such groups are however advised to stop creating tension out of no tension and embrace the olive branch extended to them by government for their own good and for the good of the region and the nation. We want to assure the general public and oil companies operating in this region that the JTF is equal to the task of protecting them, no matter where the distractions and intimidations are coming from".