N’Delta: Clamour for JTF withdrawal unthinkable – Antigha

Posted by admin Niger Delta Saturday, August 20th, 2011

CRITICS clamouring for the withdrawal of the Joint Task Force [JTF] from the Niger Delta lack deep thinking on the strategic position of the South-South to the revenue base of Nigeria, spokesman of the Force, Lt. Col. Timothy Antigha, has disclosed.

He contended that “the mandate of the force exceeds military operations against act of militancy, which had been reduced to zero level in the region, to include the effective security of the nation’s crude oil, pipelines and other critical installations.”

Antigha, who made this known during an interview with Sunday Tribune, in Yenagoa yesterday pointed out that “the operations of our soldiers in the South-South was germane to the huge success recorded so far in the presidential amnesty programme; any reasonable individual would conclude that comments credited to the so-called critics were completely out of place.”

Said he, “We have not only restored a conducive business atmosphere in the Niger Delta, but also we have created an enabling environment for healthy social activities and development,” stressing that soldiers would continue to step up their operations in the region aimed at bringing to an end the inimical activities of economic saboteurs in that part of the country”.

While insisting that the JTF would not be deterred by what he termed “biased and selfish comments of the so-called critics,” Antigha added that arrangements were in top gear to fight cases of oil theft in the South-South to a standstill.

He, however, stated that efforts of his men yielded positive fruits with the recent arrest of some people allegedly involved in stealing the nation’s crude oil, stressing that “just last month 11 suspects were arrested on board a vessel marked MT VICTOR 1 with stolen 400 metric tonnes of suspected crude oil and illegally refined AGO.”

Antigha further explained that “what we normally do is when we finish our preliminary investigation, we will hand them over with their exhibits to either the EFCC or the police and we do hope that they will take it up from there because we do not have the power to prosecute the suspects.”

-Tribunewp_posts