‘You cannot win oil war,’ Militants tell Buhari

The statement reads:

“We call on President Muhammadu Buhari to put away the garb of a stooge to the imperialists, whenever he speaks outside Nigeria. We have listened carefully and halted hostilities in the Niger Delta.

“We expect a genuine and positive attitude to restructuring and self-determination for every component unit of Nigeria. Dear president, what makes those countries (Japan, Germany, France, USA, Britain etc.) great is the ability of their governments to accommodate internal protestations and conflicts for the greater good of their nations over the years.

“Nigeria is not a one-man personal property. We must have these talks every time if this union must continue to work as one. The people of the Niger Delta have been living here from time immemorial, so we have the secret of the terrain and survival of amphibious operations.

“No amount of troop surge and simulation exercises will make you win the oil war; you can only win battles. You cannot apply the might of the state to restore the people’s confidence in your leadership when you cannot differentiate between genuine demands and being mismanaged by disorganised characters and tribal lords around you in your government that are playing the court jesters’ role as well as counting the days that is left in your four years term.

“You can deceive the whole world but we cannot be deceived by the so glamorized ongoing military operations in the creeks of Ijaw communities in the Delta coded “ Operation Crocodile Smiles”… the world should know that with your pronouncement in Kenya and your attitude to the military build-up in the Niger Delta, it is crystal clear that the military has nothing less than a pre-determined genocide in Niger Delta and burn more already scared national resources to the pockets of those that have failed to locate the missing Chibok School Girls.

“Please also tell those foreign nations that your troops are about carrying out extrajudicial killings in the Niger Delta in violation of Article Four of the Geneva Convention with “OPERATION CROCODILE SMILE”. All sane minds know the meaning of “CROCRODILE TEARS” so by code-naming your military operation CROCODILE SMILES only betrays your motives and attitude to the whole world about the Niger Delta question.”

ALSO READ: Niger Delta Avengers halt hostilities

The militant group had earlier distanced itself from supposed negotiations led by Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka.