A Niger Delta militant leader Sunday took the unusual step of apologizing to oil companies and blaming political leaders for fueling unrest in the Nigerian region.
The statement comes as the government earlier this week renewed an amnesty offer to militants whose sabotages have cut at least 500,000 barrels a day from Nigerian production.
But Nigeria has also threatened to extend military operations against them from the western part of the Delta to the east, where the militant commander is based. In a text message to Dow Jones, Marvin, who would only identify himself by his first name, said "we [apologize] to the [multinational] companies for [ the] hard time they went through." "While we were addressing our problems" with the Nigerian government, we're asking [the companies] to come back," he said.
"We blame our political fathers and elders for feeding us with lies," Marvin said.
He said the political leaders had been "giving us wrong [advice] that will make us hate [the Nigerian government], buying guns for us and opening camps for us too and fight [the government] and destroy ourselves while they feed fat on sweat and blood."
The militant leader, who is based in Rivers state, the Delta's largest producing area, added "it is the elders that the military ought to [arrest] not the militants."
He didn't mention any names of political leaders. Marvin added that " currently, we are gathering our weapons for disarmament purposes, as directed by our commander."
A spokesman for the main militant umbrella, the Movement of the Emancipation of The Niger Delta, however, has formally rejected the government amnesty offer
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