
The Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force (JNDLF) issued a statement on Wednesday claiming that some of the top members of Nigeria’s military had approached the group and asked them to continue its attacks on oil installations. The JNDLF said that the officers in question wanted to use the attacks as justification to overthrow President Muhammadu Buhari. The JNDLF stated that some “top military men” approached the group through civil agents, asking the group to “cause and continue” attacks on pipelines in the region.
The Nigerian Army has said that it will investigate the allegation that there was a plot by the service to overthrow the administration of Prsident Muhammadu Buhari.
The Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman, said in a statement on Thursday that the Army would investigate the claim in order to unravel the motive behind the claim.
Usman said that the “baseless and most unfortunate allegation” only existed in the minds of those who originated it.
He said that the Nigerian Army was a professional organisation and a product of democracy that would not be associated with the grave issue of truncating democratic governance.
He described the allegation as a declaration of war against the current administration by the peddlers of the claim.
“The attention of the Nigerian Army has been drawn to another campaign of calumny and distraction by a faceless criminal gang of economic saboteurs that hide under the aegis of the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force alleging that some officers of the Nigerian Army approached them for support to overthrow our duly elected present democratic government.
“This is a baseless and most unfortunate allegation that existed in the warped minds of the originators of such weighty allegation. The Nigerian Army wish to state that this is not true and hereby distanced itself from this weighty allegation.”