New Militant Group Emerges, Issues Ultimatum to Private Oil Firms

As the Federal Government moves against the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), militancy in the region has tak­en another dimension as a new group: The New Delta Suicide Squad (NDSS) has emerged.

Unlike the NDA which con­centrates its attacks on pipelines and facilities of major oil firms, the new group has threatened to destroy the equipment of private oil firms’ installations in the re­gion.

The announcement of the group came on the heels of Pres­ident Muhammadu Buhari’s threat in a national broadcast to mark his first anniversary in of­fice, to crush the upsurge in mil­itancy in the Niger Delta which has crippled Nigeria’s oil produc­tion.

The NDSS warned owners of tank farms, storage tanks and private jetties to quit the Niger Delta within seven days.

It said failure to comply with the deadline, the owners of such facilities stood the risk of losing their investments.

In a statement issued on Monday by the spokesman of the group, Harry Ebiye, he said: “The New Niger Delta Suicide Squad warns all owners of tank farms, storage tanks and private jetties to quit the region within the next seven days beginning from the date of this publication or risk the destruction of all their facil­ities from the date of the expira­tion of this ultimatum.

“The exploitation of this re­gion by scavengers, economic pi­rates, and cowboys must come to an end” Ebiye said.

Top officials of the Federal Gov­ernment are divided over how to handle the current attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta by militants.

A meeting with representa­tives of top militants in the region, reportedly organised last week by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) on how to con­tain the security problems in the Niger Delta, ended in a deadlock.

One camp had reported­ly broached the idea of using a former South-South governor to reach out to the militants, but shelved the idea when it was real­ised that the former governor did not have the required clout and contacts amongst the militants.

Another issue being report­edly considered is that of the de­tention for over 70 days, without trial, of Azibaola Roberts, a cous­in of former President Goodluck Jonathan, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Ironically, Roberts is being held by the EFCC for a $40 mil­lion contract to secure oil pipe­lines during the Jonathan admin­istration. Some security sources hinted on the possibility of the government engaging Roberts to negotiate with the militants cur­rently destroying oil pipelines in the region, since he had successfully handled such projects before on behalf of the government.

An EFCC source hinted that they did not have sufficient evi­dence to charge Roberts to court, but that having detained him for over 70 days, the commission may be left with no option than to charge him to “any court, just to save face.”