The Nigerian government announced it intends to employ the very same militants often blamed for attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta to guard the region's oil pipelines.

In a surprising and certainly controversial move, defense officials said they would negotiate a possible protection agreement with militants.

"We will engage them to police oil pipelines, but they must first form themselves into limited liability companies for us to discuss with them," Nigerian Defense Minister Yayale Ahmed told federal lawmakers earlier this week.

The initiative, said Yayale, not only would help curtail attacks on oil installations in the delta carried out by armed groups including rival militants, but also would prevent foreign oil companies from illegally "bunkering," or tapping into rival oil reserves.

"This will check the activities of even oil companies who cleverly engage in oil bunkering. We must fight criminality wherever it exists," the minister said, This Day newspaper reported Wednesday.