The Niger Delta Avengers, has denied reports that two of its members were arrested by the Nigerian Navy.
Recall that two suspected members of the Niger Delta Avengers, Felix Ebiador, and another person simply identified as David, who were arrested on July 10, 2016 were on Friday last week paraded in Delta State.
Both suspects were said to have been apprehended with new 11 vehicle batteries and electric cables allegedly used for blowing up oil pipelines in the state.
But the militant group in a statement by its spokesman, Mudoch Agbinibo on Saturday, insisted that the two suspects arrested by the Nigerian Navy were not avengers.
According yo the group, the Navy lacks the ability to arrest its members because it has superior weapons.
The statement reads in part, “From the media reports, it is clear that the Commanding Officer, NNS Delta, Commodore Joseph Dzunve, has lost his sense of professionalism. How are those innocent boys connected to NDA?
“We don’t know Prince David and Felix Ebiador; they are not part of us. All NDA operatives are intact. No security operative has arrested any of our members. What the commanding officer is doing is to please his boss that he is working.
“Must he connect innocent people to us? Very soon, the general public will know the truth about the Nigerian military, especially the Nigerian Navy that specialises in illegal oil bunkering.
“Stop arresting innocent people in the name of looking for NDA operatives. It’s obvious that the Nigeria Navy is incapable of policing the Nigerian maritime space.
“Even the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas, made it clear while briefing the Senate that Nigerian Navy was ill-equipped to match the Niger Delta Avengers. So how can the well-trained NDA members bring themselves so low to be arrested by the Nigerian Navy?
“They should follow the path of honour and morality by telling their Commander-in-Chief the truth instead of arresting innocent civilians and tagging them as NDA operatives. The days of wire and battery are over; we are far advance in guerilla warfare.”
