Posted by The Port Harcourt Telegraph on
The German government has become the latest supplier of arms and other lethal weapons which might be used by the Federal Government against restive Niger Delta youths who are asking for the control of resource found on their land, especially in the face of a worsening unemployment problem and what they see as a non-challant attitude on the part of the Nigerian nation towards the development of the region.
... Supplies military with lethal weapons, gunboats
The German government has become the latest supplier of arms and other lethal weapons which might be used by the Federal Government against restive Niger Delta youths who are asking for the control of resource found on their land, especially in the face of a worsening unemployment problem and what they see as a non-challant attitude on the part of the Nigerian nation towards the development of the region.
According to information reaching our news desk, Nigerian and Germany may have signed a pact for the supply of 'angels of death' at a cost of about $250 million.
Government has been worried at the sophistication of weapons available to youths in the region which include rocket launchers and general purpose machine guns.
Said one source who preferred to speak under conditions of anonymity, "there are indeed guns in the Niger Delta and the youths are probably waiting for the failure of the request for resource control tabled before the national confab to paralyze oil operations in the region"
"This is exactly what the Nigerian authorities and their Western European and United States collaborators do not want", he went on, "so the new arms race being pursued by Nigeria would only lead to bloodshed in the delta."
Nigerian soldiers may already be carrying German guns and using German gunboats in the Niger Delta.
A group of journalists including foreigners who seized the opportunity of the Odioma crisis to tour parts of Bayelsa State found soldiers armed with sophisticated gunboats and arms were encamped at various oil platforms. While the Federal government apparently prepares to guarantee the flow of oil and gas out of the country to markets where they are needed, tension mounts in the Niger Delta over the militarization of the region. Among the people here, death mat be better than disgrace and chances are this may become manifest in due course.