Members of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) have joined Ijaw youths in opposing the planned deployment of troops in the Niger Delta region under a special arrangement code-named Operation Crocodile Smile.
The Army had on Wednesday said the operation would go after Badoo group and other criminal organisations in the South.
Director, Public Relations, Brig. Gen. Sani Usman, had explained that the military operations – Egwu Eke II and Crocodile Smile II – like the earlier operations, are not targeted at “any particular ethnic group or group of individuals”.
But the PANDEF and the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) advised the Federal government to reconsider the planned deployment of troops, arguing that the move could undermine the relative peace in the region.
PANDEF’s Coordinating Secretary, Dr. Alfred Mulade, said deployment of soldiers is “misadvised and ill-conceived especially at this time that the geopolitical zone is gradually coming to terms with the urgent need for sustaining the relative peace in the region.”
President of the IYC, Mr. Eric Omare, warned that extension of Operation Crocodile Smile II to the Niger Delta region will create tension in the area.
Omare said: “The plan unnecessary; the Federal Government should not consider what the Operation Python Dance did in the South-East, which led to the tagging of the Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB) as a terrorist group, as an achievement.
“What Operation Python Dance II has done is not an achievement to the Federal Government. It is negative for the government.
“For the Niger Delta, from my experience, extending the Operation Crocodile Smile II to the Niger Delta will only aggravate the volatile situation in the region.”
In its reaction, Afenifere insisted that the Southwest does not require troops for security, urging them to go and fight Boko Harm in Northeast.