President Buhari urged to treat militants like Boko Haram terrorists

The Advocates of Social Justice for All (ASJA) has said those engaged in destruction of oil and gas infrastructures under the guise of agitation should be treated as terrorists.

The group urged the federal government to reject calls in some quarters that amnesty be granted to the militants adding that it would encourage criminality.

Addressing journalists in Abuja, ASJA national president, Torkuma Venatius said granting amnesty to militants who have engaged in destruction of national assets is like rewarding criminality and is capable of eroding patriotism.

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"First we want to note that such calls for negotiation are a disservice to the decent and well meaning people of the Niger Delta," he said.

"Those engaged in destruction of oil and gas infrastructures represent an infinitesimal fraction of the entire population yet their action is being used to label an entire region.

"We must also ask what has happened to the previous amnesty granted to these same set of people under the administration of late President , which was later continued as an elaborate scam under the succeeding administration," he added.

Similarly, New Niger Delta Emancipation Front has advised militants operating in the region to embrace peace even as it lauded the deployment of the military under ‘Operation Crocodile Smile’ to restore sanity to the area.

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