Less than a week after President Muhammadu Buhari vowed to deal with pipeline vandals and saboteurs frustrating his administration’s programmes and policies, a militant group in the Niger-Delta, which claimed responsibility for a major attack on a pipeline in the region, said it will carry out more strikes.
The group, the Niger Delta Avengers, said it carried out the attack on a Shell underwater pipeline in February which interrupted oil flows and forced the company to shut down its 250,000 barrel-a-day Forcados export terminal for weeks.
Daring the president, who urged those behind destruction of critical oil and gas assets to continue with their “madness” until he deals with them same way he dealt with Boko Haram, the militant group in a statement on Sunday and made available to Reuters, said it would not be cowed by Mr. Buhari’s threat to unleash the full strength of the Nigerian Armed Forces on vandals and saboteurs.
“We are not deterred by such threats as we are highly spirited and shall continue blowing up pipelines until the Niger Delta people are no longer marginalized by the Nigerian actors”, said the Niger Delta Avengers.
The oil-rich Niger-Delta, which contributes not less than 70 per cent of state income in Africa’s biggest economy, has been left devastated by years of neglect and environmental degradation due to activities of oil exploration and lack of political will to bring development to the area.
This has resulted in militants demanding a greater share of crude revenues to the area as well as agitations for resource control.
Unheard of before the Forcados attack, the Niger Delta Avengers say they want to ensure that local people enjoy a quality of life which reflects the region’s contribution to the national purse.
“We take no pleasure in claiming innocent lives hence our struggle is geared toward attacking the oil installations in our region and not the people. And we shall stop at nothing until our goal is achieved”, the group added in its statement.
(Reuters)
