New militant group emerges in Rivers

Barely 24 hours after the Federal Government began talks with members of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) to end attacks on oil facilities, a new militant group, the Ekpeye Liberation Group (ELG), yesterday emerged in Rivers State and gave multinational companies 14-day ultimatum to relocate.

The affected multinationals include Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC), Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (NLNG), Total Exploration and Production (E&P) and the Niger Delta Petroleum Resources (NDPR).

The militant group, which consists of ex-militants and freedom agitators, also claimed responsibility for explosion at NAOC’s well 5 in Akara Olu community in Ahoada West Local Government Area of Rivers State.

It asked the Federal Government and multinationals to expect more attacks and explosions at the expiration of the ultimatum.

ELG, through its Commander, Special Duties, “General” Obodo Obodo, in an online statement yesterday, stressed that the 14-day ultimatum would be for the multinational companies operating in Ekpeye land to vacate or face total war, involving destruction of oil pipelines and other oil facilities in the area.

The NDA, comprising mostly Ijaw youths, decided to restrict its bombing of oil facilities to Delta and Bayelsa States, where military personnel had confronted its fighters until the Federal Government called for ceasefire to allow for dialogue with the NDA leaders. But the new militant group is based in Rivers State.

ELG said: “We hereby give SPDC, NAOC, NLNG, Total E&P and NDPR a 14-day ultimatum to vacate Ekpeyeland. Anything other than that will mean that we shall bring total war to the doorsteps of the multinationals in the area.

“Our Operation Red Economy will commence after the expiration of the 14-day ultimatum given to the oil companies, and it shall be coordinated by Team 3 Leader, ‘General’ Akpatus a.k.a. Pipelines Strike Chief.

“We condemn outright the lukewarm attitude of the oil companies operating in Ekpeyeland in the face of the incessant killings and kidnappings of our people in recent times.

“The oil firms have failed to discharge their corporate social responsibility (CSR) to their host communities, thereby leaving the people in abject poverty and hopelessness.”

The ELG also said continuous oil exploration and exploitation by the multinationals had brought untold hardship to the people of the area, lamenting that their lands were no longer fertile, waters polluted, no development and no Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) for host communities of the oil companies, with the people suffering in the midst of plenty.

The new militant group strongly warned the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, not to conclude that the Niger Delta struggle was for Ijaw people alone.

It declared that any attempt to short-change other ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta would be resisted, stressing that Kachikwu’s alleged position would increase the bleeding of Nigeria’s economy.