The Niger Delta Avengers, yesterday, said it does not care if the Federal Government hires mercenaries from Saudi Arabia or anywhere to fight them. Reacting to online reports that the federal government had concluded agreement with Saudi authorities to deploy Saudi Blackwater mercenaries to the Niger Delta region to tackle militants that had been bombing oil facilities, spokesperson of the group, self-styled Brig Gen Mudoch Agbinibo, told Saturday Vanguard that NDA was not perturbed. A staff in The Royal Embassy of The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Nigeria supposedly confirmed the $280 million deal, as part of the agreement in the Saudi-led Islamic coalition against terrorism to Vaxity. Anwar Eshki, a retired Major General, in the Saudi armed forces is reportedly the head of Blackwater, which undertakes such assignments for the Saudi Arabian government.
Niger Delta Avengers in its reaction, said: “The Niger Delta Avengers do not care if the federal government hires or concludes plans to bring in Bluewater, Graywater, Pinkwater, Whitewater or Blackwater mercenaries from Saudi Arabia. It is none of our business, the Saudi Arabia, has its own problem of terrorism, so coming here to help Nigerian government is funny. The Niger Delta region will win this war,” the group added.
The Ijaw People Development Initiative, IPDI, also responding to the alleged move by government to hire Saudi mercenaries, said: “We want to reiterate that bombing Niger Delta communities or wasting $258million to hire fighters to fight the Niger Delta Avengers will not stop Niger Delta quest for self-determination. Rather, it will aggravate and teach aggrieved youths better warfare and how to go about acquiring modern equipment to fight back tomorrow.”
The group in a joint statement by the national president and spokesperson, Austin Ozobo and Daniel Ezekiel, said: “We wonder why the government is so bent on wasting such huge amount of money to hire fighters from Saudi Arabia to fight a region that has fed the country for the past 58 years. We are also surprised at the president’s decision to hire his Muslim allies to fight Niger Delta people.” It asked: “Why not Nigeria soldiers? What happened to the 100 gunboats, 5 warships and 3 fighter jets earlier deployed to the creeks to fight Niger Delta Avengers, which turned into a venture of intimidating innocent people and invading communities?
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