LAGOS, Nigeria – Nigeria's main militant group threatened on Wednesday to launch a new wave of attacks on the volatile West African nation's oil pipelines within 30 days to counter allegations the group had taken money to protect them.

A spokesman for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, denied claims it said had been made by the country's petroleum company that the state-run organization had paid $12 million to militants to protect pipelines. Officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation could not immediately be reached for comment.

To prove “we are not a part of this deal, the Chanomi Creek pipeline and other major pipelines will be destroyed within the next 30 days,” the militant statement said. Chanomi Creek is located in the western Niger Delta.

“MEND will never sell its birthright for a bowl of porridge when the impoverished masses in the region continue to live in abject poverty,” the statement said.

The e-mail said profits of the alleged deal were split among military and government officials. The group also said “huge payments” had been made by authorities to criminal gangs in the Niger Delta to protect oil facilities, but those groups were not part of the militant movement.

Militants say their campaign of oil-infrastructure attacks is aimed at forcing the federal government to send more money to the six states comprising the southern Niger Delta. Such attacks have slashed this west African nation's oil output by almost a quarter in the past two years, helping push world crude prices to historic highs.

Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer and is routinely ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.