The Nigerian military has scrapped its joint military task force in the restive Niger Delta region.

According to a statement by the director of Defence information, Major-Gen. Rabe Abubakar, the task force, which is popularly known as Operation Pulo Shield, is to be replaced by “Operation Delta Safe.”

Abubakar said the new task force would now function under three sub-bases located in Ondo, Akwa Ibom and the entire Niger Delta region.

The statement reads, “The OPERATION PULO SHIELD in Niger Delta has been scrapped with immediate effect and replaced with OPERATION DELTA SAFE. This is in line with the Defence Headquarters initiative to restructure the Joint Task Force for better service delivery, efficiency and effectiveness in line with the vision and mission of the Chief of Defence Staff to contain the current security challenges in the Niger Delta especially protection of critical national assets and provision of security in the area.

“Under this arrangement, the Joint Operational Areas of the new outfit have been delineated into 3 sectors and 5 Operational Bases covering the entire Niger Delta, Ondo and Akwa Ibom States. The Headquarters of OPERATION DELTA SAFE would be in Yenagoa.

“This development, according to Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonisakin, becomes expedient in order to inject new tactics and robust operational initiative to tackle the emerging security challenges in the Niger Delta region such as piracy, bunkering, vandalism and other criminalities prevalent in the area.”

This is just as, a new group, Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force (JNDLF) yesterday sent a warning letter to President Mohammad Buhari, alleging that some military officers were planning the crisis in the region to plot a military coup against his administration.

According to the JNDLF, though the new militant groups except the Niger Delta Avengers have decided to abide by the federal government’s ceasefire and embrace political solution through dialogue, the military top officers, through some civil agents, had been involved in treasonable plots with issues of the Niger Delta to upstage the administration of President Mohammadu Buhari.

This was contained in a statement signed by General Akotebe Tebe Darikoro(Commander, General Duties), General Torunanawei Latei(Creeks Network Coordinator), General Agbakakuro Owei-Tauro (Pipelines Bleeding Expert) and General Pulokiri Ebiladei (Intelligence Bureau).