Daring militants monday blasted an oil
pipeline belonging to the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in
Batan community in Warri South West Local Government area of Delta
State.
Security sources told THISDAY that the
incident occurred at SPDC Camp Five at about 1 a.m. with a huge fire
enveloping the site of the attack.
“Suspected militants attacked the SPDC
pipeline in Batan at about 1 a.m. with dynamites. As I am speaking, the
place is engulfed with fire but efforts are being made to put it off,”
one security source said.
Another community source confirmed the
incident, stating that they heard a huge explosion around midnight only
to discover it was a pipeline belonging to Shell that had been blasted.
He said: “We heard a huge explosion when
we were sleeping. We rushed out and found that the Shell pipeline was
on fire. We are not sure whether it was militants that caused it or
not.”
The Niger Delta Advengers (NDA), the
militant group that has claimed responsibility for the destruction of
oil facilities in the Niger Delta, was yet to claim responsibility at
the time of filing this report.
Instead, the group disclaimed reports of
a meeting between itself and the Minister of Youths and Sports, Solomon
Dalung, at Oporoza in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta
State.
Reacting to the minister’s claim that he met with the Avengers at the weekend, the militant group said he must have been duped by fraudsters since it did not send any representatives to “meet with a common minister”.
Reacting to the minister’s claim that he met with the Avengers at the weekend, the militant group said he must have been duped by fraudsters since it did not send any representatives to “meet with a common minister”.
“The Minister of Youths and Sports,
Solomon Dalung narrated how he met with some self claimed Niger Delta
Avengers in Oporoza, Gbaramatu Kingdom. We are here to let the general
public know that Niger Delta fraudsters have defrauded the minister.
“Niger Delta Avengers can’t stoop so low
to send representatives to meet with a common Minister of Youths and
Sports that doesn’t know his work.
“Let us make this clear, any meeting
with Niger Delta Avengers that the international community is not part
of as witness, we will not be part of any such dialogue,” it said in a
press release signed by its spokesperson, Mudoch Agbinibo.
Further investigations by THISDAY also revealed that none of the security agencies were aware of the said visit by the minister.
“We were not aware of the visit by the
Minister of Youths and Sports. I should be in the know if we were
informed of the visit,” a senior military officer at 3rd Battalion,
Effurun said.
The Delta State Police Public Relations
Officer, Celestina Kalu, a Superintendent of Police (SP), said she was
also not aware of the visit while a senior officer of the Department of
State Services (DSS) claimed ignorance of any meeting between the
minister and the Avengers.
Meanwhile, the President General of
Orogun community in Ughelli North Local Government area of Delta State,
Chief Josiah Ntekume, has said that the self-styled militant leader, who
threatened to assassinate President Muhammadu Buhari does not hail from
that area.
The self-styled militant leader, who
identified himself as Ogheneghochuko, had in a video that has gone viral
on the social media, threatened to kill Buhari, his family and
governors of the South-east region if the detained leader of the
Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu was not released by month
end.
Oghenghochuko, who claimed he was from
Orogun and the leader of Biafra Avengers 2, also demanded a Biafra
nation in the 8.55-minute video. He used derogatory words against the
president and threatened to unleash violence against the state and
solicited for youths in the South-east to join any unit of his group
closest to them.
But the President General of Orogun
community, Ntekume, in an interview with THISDAY, said since the video
went viral, an investigation conducted in the area revealed that there
was no such person from his community.
He held the view that the man might be a Biafra sympathiser from the South-east claiming to be of Urhobo origin.
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