We’re Negotiating With Real Militants, FG Insists

The Federal Government on Sunday insisted that it was negotiating with the real militants in the Niger Delta geopolitical zone, despite claims by the Niger Delta Avengers that the government was

not holding any discussion with the group. Officials at the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation stated that the government was in talks with the
restive group in the region. They argued that those who often claim not to be on the negotiation table with the government were either aggrieved or were not invited. On Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari, stated that his administration was in talks with the armed militants in the Niger Delta. Buhari, who said this in Abuja during a farewell meeting with the outgoing German Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Michael Zinner, said the talks were done through security agents and oil companies operating in the zone. But the NDA in a statement by its spokesperson, Mudoch Agbinobi, denied being in any talks with the Federal Government, stressing that the President’s claim was insincere and aimed at deceiving Nigerians and the international community.