UPDATES WITH CONTRADICTORY STATEMENT FROM MILITANT GROUP'S OTHER SPOKESMAN
By Rafiu Ajakaye
LAGOS, Nigeria (AA) – Nigerian oil militants appear split over whether or not to dialogue with the government.
A spokesman for the militants said on Wednesday they were “willingly and collectively” embracing dialogue with the government, following local and global appeals that they end months of sabotaging of pipelines, which resulted in record high cuts in national earnings.
“[The Niger Delta Avengers] has collectively and willingly agreed to heed the clarion call of eminent Nigerians and the international community to dialogue with the Federal Government,” Ballantyne Agiri, a spokesman of the group, said in a statement.
“Members of the avengers’ group [who will participate in the dialogue] have already been selected, each based on his integrity, forthrightness, honesty and life track records,” he added.
But late Wednesday, another spokesman Mudoch Agbinibo denounced Agiri as an impostor.
"We are not ready for any negotiation or dialogue with the federal government," Agbinibo said in a statement on Twitter Wednesday night.
Since February, the group had single-handedly brought oil production to a historic low, affecting government earnings from oil by more than 50 percent of budget estimates, according to government officials.
Earlier efforts to get the group to end the bombings had failed.
The Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, another militant group with lesser clout, had earlier entered into a dialogue with the government but this did not end the bombings.