Nigeria's defense chief is accusing some members of thesecurity forces of collaborating with militants in the Niger Delta.
VOAreporter Chinedu Offor is on assignment in Nigeria. From the capital, Abuja, hespoke to English to Africa Service reporter Joe De Capua.
"Theseaccusations were made by none other than the Nigerian chief ofdefense staff,Air Chief Marshall Paul Dike. He's accusing his men of conniving withmilitants to attack military personnel, as well as destroy sensitive governmentoperations. He says it amounted to economic sabotage and that it was a shamethat the same people who are trained and paid to defend the country areconniving with militants to destroy the country," he says.
The military official points to the nature ofattacks by militants as evidence of collaboration. "He says the ease with whichmilitants strike and the daring nature of their attacks suggest they had insideinformation. And he is saying that these attacks were coordinated, facilitated,in his words, by the leaking of information to these militants," Offor says.