The group has been carrying out systematic attacks on major oil installations in the region in the past months.

In a meeting held in Benin City, Edo State on Friday, June 3, the South South zone of the APC said the renewed attacks is to discredit and frustrate the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

“The zone is cocksure that the nefarious and ruinous activities of the ‘Avengers’ are not driven by any patriotic and altruistic impulse,” the APC said in a statement after the meeting signed by the APC National Vice-Chairman South South, Hilliard Eta, and the Zonal Secretary, Steven Ezekwem.

“We have compelling reasons to strongly assert that these activities are sponsored and instigated by the opposition PDP to derail and frustrate the APC government of President Muhammadu Buhari because of its determination to fight against corruption, stabilise and put our country on the path of sustainable development.”

The statement alsorejected the inclusion of the Niger Delta region in the “imaginary State of Biafra”.

The APC said the inclusion is “dubious”, stressing that “Niger Delta is not, cannot and will never be part of Biafra.”

READ: FG freezes accounts of alleged sponsors of Niger Delta Avengers

The party praised the Buhari administration for the courage to commence the clean-up of Ogoniland and other parts of Niger Delta.

It urged the Federal Government to reconstitute the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission to accommodate all the constituent states of the region, and to consider the party leaders from the zone in appointments into federal boards and other executive positions.