The Chief of Army Staff, COAS, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, has called on Nigerians to expose the Niger Delta Avengers, who had of lately taken to destruction of pipelines and other oil installations, as well as other criminals in their midst but in another statement the Minister for Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed with the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, Monday, said the Federal Government is considering opening a robust dialogue with the Niger-Delta militants on the need to stop militancy in the oil rich region.
The army chief, while speaking on Monday at the 2 Brigade, Port Harcourt, after the inauguration of soldiers’ accommodation and 500 KVA generator, donated by the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, described the Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, as criminals.
Buratai was flanked at the event by the General Officer Commanding, GOC, 82 Division, Enugu, Maj.-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru and the Commander of 2 Brigade, Brig.-Gen. Steve Olabanji; among other top army officers.
He said, “Whatever these criminals (Niger Delta Avengers) are doing is a criminal act. We will deal with them accordingly.
“We are looking at all the areas that we should address and we are doing that, including the criminals in the name of Niger Delta Avengers. They are not avenging anything. They are criminals.
“Nobody has offended them. They have their own criminal intentions and we will deal with them accordingly.
“They have been attacking our troops’ locations and killing our soldiers. We will not tolerate that. We will deal with them accordingly, according to the law.
“We will look for them wherever they are. That is how we will treat them. They are not agitating for any enclave or any state.
“They are just committing criminal acts. That is how we see it.”
But in an interactive session a coalition of civil societies in Lagos, chaired by Dr. Moses Ilo, founder of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, the Minister for Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed with the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, on 
Monday, said the Federal Government was considering opening a robust dialogue with the Niger-Delta militants on the need to stop militancy in the oil rich region.
Mohammed while lamenting the situation said there was no other solution to the issues happening in Niger Delta other than engaging them in meaningful dialogue. According to Kachikwu the government has come to realize that rolling out military tanks against the militants would not solve the problem.
“The military barrels cannot stop or solve problem of militancy in the Niger–Delta region. I will have to go back to my brothers, they are our brothers we will go and dialogue with them,” Kachikwu said. He said the continued audit of the country’s daily fuel consumption resulted in weeding out 10 million liters of fake petroleum products that was daily subsidized by the previous administration. Kachikwu lamented that the fund spent in subsidizing the pretentious consumption daily could have been used by the Federal Government to fix the refineries, roads and other basic amenities across the country which would have helped improve the Nigeria’s economy.
