The militant group, Niger Delta Avengers, which has claimed responsibility for a spate of attacks on oil and gas installations in the Niger Delta has denied the arrest of its members by the military.
“Our attention has the drawn to the arrest of 10 boys by Nigeria Military. None of our Strike team has been arrested its all a lie,” the group said on its tweeter handle.
Over the weekend the Nigerian military claimed that it had in its custody 10 men which it identified as belonging to the militant group.
The Commander of the 4 Brigade, Brigadier-General Farouk Yahaya, who paraded the suspects on Sunday in Benin, listed items including 28 detonator cords (also known Detonator 33), one pistol, two pistols, 196 rounds of 7.62 special ammunition, one round of nine-millimetre ammunition, a live cartridge and five daggers.
Also recovered were 15 handheld radio sets, 18 phones, 203 SIM cards belonging to three major network providers, five swimsuits, two headlamps, a laptop, two ipads and a camera.
Others are seven wraps of substances suspected to be Indian hemp, five speedboat throttle cables, six pairs of hand gloves, the sum of N23,000 cash and a cheque book.
He said that although investigation would reveal the true identity of the suspects, recent explosions carried out by the Niger Delta Avengers suggested that the arrested suspects might not be unconnected to the group.
“The Nigeria Military also lied that NDA [Niger Delta Avenger] kill soldiers. We haven’t engage in combat with them but if they want us to kill them let them come after us,” the group also said.
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