The Defence Headquarters has assured that the Nigerian Armed Forces will not relent in their efforts to flush out economic saboteurs masquerading under whatever guise to perpetrate evils in the Niger Delta.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday, Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar, Acting Director, defence Information said, “As part of the constitutional mandate of the Armed Forces, the military will not jettison the confidence reposed in it by the good citizens of our great nation in ensuring that peace and security prevail in our land.”

The military high command also emphasised that it is not unmindful of the “campaign of calumny against our soldiers by paid agents claiming that soldiers are harassing members of the public while performing their constitutional responsibility. It is pertinent to state that it is the same group of people that are wreaking havoc on the critical national assets that are blackmailing the Armed Forces and other security agencies to divert attention.”

Abubakar further stated that “the military and other security agencies will continue to discharge their lawful duties in the Niger Delta and any other part of the country in a most professional manner devoid of the claim by the criminal elements of harassment, intimidation and arrest. Our job is to secure infrastructural facilities and property of innocent citizens as well as containing the activities of criminal.”

“The blackmail by sponsored persons would not deter the military from being focused and committed in its effort to fish out the vandals as the whole world is seeing what the so called militants are criminally doing in the attacks of oil pipelines,” Abubakar said.

According to the Defence Headquarters, the security measure put in place is not meant to intimidate innocent individuals but to bring normalcy to the land. The military urged the communities and well meaning Nigerians to cooperate with the security agencies in their bid to apprehend the perpetrators as it would respond decisively in a professional manner at appropriate time.

•Photo shows Brig.-Gen. Rabe Abubakar.

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