Asari said the government had lied about how many weapons were handed over by rival warlord Ateke Tom, whom Asari previously accused of being backed by the Rivers state governor Peter Odili, and with whom he signed the ceasefire. Asari said the ceasefire would still stand despite the disagreement over the weapons recovery. "The problem is that Ateke submitted only eight rifles, but the committee says he submitted over 600. They are not taking any weapons from him," he said by phone from the Rivers state capital Port Harcourt. "We will stop disarmament until that issue is cleared up," he added.

Rivers state officials said Asari had miscalculated, and the 600 total also included weapons handed in by other groups. Asari's Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF) fought sporadically with troops and rival militiamen over the last year in the vast wetlands of the eastern delta, but fighting intensified in September when the government sent in thousands of troops to attack his bases.

The NDPVF says it is fighting for the rights of the delta's dominant Ijaw people who live mostly in poverty despite the huge oil wealth pumped from their tribal lands. The rebel group ordered foreign oil workers to leave the delta in September, pushing crude prices to record highs, before signing a ceasefire a week later.

Oil companies feared Asari's insurgency could spread to the western delta, where a separate Ijaw uprising last year forced multinationals to briefly shut 40 percent of Nigeria's output. So far his struggle has limited itself to Rivers state, where Asari is embroiled in a political tussle for power with his former ally Odili who he accuses of rigging 2003 elections.