The Bayelsa State Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson, on Wednesday lamented that activities of militants were damaging the image of the state and the Niger Delta region as a whole.
The governor also told gun-wielding youths in the region that his government would not want a repeat of the 1999 Odi massacre.
During the administration of ex- President Olusegun Obasanjo, the military invaded Odi in Kolokuma-Opokuma local government area of the state to avenge the killing of security operatives by militants.
Dickson spoke in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, following the brutal killing of three soldiers at a military outpost in Foropa, Southern Ijaw, on Tuesday morning.
The incident occurred about two days after suspected militants killed four naval ratings, an oil firm’s employee and his wife at a wellhead in Nembe creeks, Nembe local government area of the state.
In the two incidents, the militants carted away the riffles and other ammunition of their victims.
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Niger Delta region especially Bayelsa has been on the spotlight following the emergence of a new militant group, Niger Delta Avengers (NDA).
Already President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the security chiefs to crush the uprising in the state.
Dickson in the statement condemned in very strong terms the unprovoked attack and killing of the security operatives.
According to him, such unwarranted attacks on the nation’s security personnel were putting the state and the region in bad light.
He said community leaders, elders and other stakeholders would be summoned to a meeting at a date to be announced later.
He called on the perpetrators of the dastardly killings and their collaborators to stop it with immediate effect.
“Terrorism does not favour peace, neither can democracy express itself through violence,” Dickson said.