- Niger Delta Avengers: FG negotiating with fraudsters
The Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force,
JNDLF, has threatened to blow up 10 oil and gas facilities in Bayelsa to
express their displeasure with the handling of the ongoing crisis in
the region.
While making its own threats, the JNDLF,
which said its members had been meeting in Yenagoa, vowed that the oil
and gas pipelines running from Ogboinbiri in Southern Ijaw of Bayelsa
state to Obrinkon in Ikwerre LGA of Rivers state are “to be finally cut
off from transmission.”
It added in a statement by Gen Akotebe
Darikoro (Commander, General Duties), Torunnanaowei Latei (Creeks
Network Coordinator) and others that the group would immediately proceed
to bomb the flow stations of Ogboinbiri, Oporoma, Peremabiri, Tabidaba,
Nembe, Brass, Chevron platform in Koluama, Okordia-Zarama and Biseni,
including Gbarain-Ubie gas gathering plant.
“We further warn those staying around
and within those areas to please leave because our mission is to cripple
the economy of the country and not to kill any human being on earth.
“The Nigerian security who are claiming
they are securing the oil facilities in the region should stay away at
their dwelling places and see whether their safety will be guaranteed by
the music on those days”, it vowed.
While commending the Minister of state,
Petroleum Resources, Dr I’ve Kachikwu, “ for the bold steps he
personally took to resolve the injustice created and sponsored by the
wicked companies and government in Nigeria”, the group claimed that its
struggle was beyond monetary gains.
“Our Field Commanders have been
instructed what to do and those who are on standby in Rivers, Akwa-Ibom,
Edo, Delta Cross River await after Bayelsa state operations.
“We further warn that henceforth, any
attack on Ijaw communities or person(s) by the military or para-military
bodies in the region, we will not hesitate to order our shoot-at-sight
squad of any uniformed personnel in the region.
“For the records, Niger Delta Avengers
(NDA) are not in Delta state, we only go there to strike and return back
safely to the struggle base, Bayelsa state “, the group said.
The Niger Delta Avengers, the new face
of violent agitations in the oil-rich region, on Wednesday accused the
federal government of opening negotiations with people they described as
fraudsters on ways of ending the current crisis in the area.
It was obviously responding to a comment
in the media on the activities of the group by the Senior Special
Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba
Shehu, that the group had no clear demands.
“My conversation on this issue with
General Babagana Munguno, the National Security Adviser, precisely two
weeks back, he informed this reporter that he met 14 groups claiming
leadership to the renewed onslaught on the nation’s economic jugular
vein.
“Each of the groups had been brought to
him by a serving governor or a former one; a serving minister or one
that had left office with assurances that “this group is the one to talk
to.”
“The amazing discovery he made from his
meetings is the lack of unity among them as each group that came
attacked the one that came before it as inconsequential”, Shehu had
written.
But in a release by the spokesman of the
group, Mudock Agbinibo, on Wednesday, the group denied ever meeting
with any contact committee from the federal government, insisting that
those being negotiated with were out to swindle the government.
“We, the Niger Delta Avengers, have not
negotiated with anyone. So we don’t know where Mr Garba shehu and
General Babagana Munguno, the National Security Adviser are getting
their information from.
” If they have been negotiating with
anybody, it clearly shows they had been negotiating with fraudsters and
their (national security agency) created militant group”, the NDA
stated.
The group which has been attacking oil
and gas facilities in the Niger Delta since February this year, also
dismissed assertions that its members were killing soldiers and raiding
homes.
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