Again, the rampaging Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), have destroyed major oil
and gas trunk lines in Bayelsa and Delta States respectively.
Sources said the Obiobi Brass trunk line in Bayelsa is a major crude
delivery line of the Italian oil giants, National Agip Oil Company (NAOC),
while the line belonging to the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC) is a crude line supplying products to both the Warri and Kaduna
Refineries.
With this development, the two refineries have been cut completely from
crude supply thus affecting their productions.
But the communities in Gbaramatu Kingdom, the epicenter of the militant
activities are not happy with the continued booming of oil and gas
facilities and the attendant devastation of the environment which they
described as their only heritage.
The Avengers in their tweets claimed responsibility for the attacks which
occurred about 3.00 am Friday morning.
The group reiterated that the people of Niger Delta want to assume
ownership of their resources and urged the international community to
support the quest.
NDA in a statement by its spokesperson, Brig.-General Mudoch Agbinibo,
said: “Since the amalgamation of Nigeria in 1914 to date, our resources
have been used to sustain the political administrative live wire of
Nigeria to the exclusion of the Niger Delta.
“We are calling on the international community to come and support the
restoration of our right to peaceful self-determination from this tragedy
of 1914 that has expired since 2014. We want our resources back to restore
the essence of human life in our region for generations to come because
Nigeria has failed to do that. The world should not wait until we go the
Sudan ways.
“Since the day crude oil was discovered in commercial quantity in
Oloibiri, present day Bayelsa State, what we have been asking successive
governments in Nigeria is potable drinking water, electricity, roads,
employment, quality education/educational facilities, resource control,
participation in the oil business and inclusive government that will
engender substantial freedom.
“The reverse has been the case: from Oloibiri, Brass LNLG and export
terminals in Bayelsa; Bonny LNLG and export terminals in Rivers State;
ExxonMobil in Akwa Ibom; Escravos EGTL/ Tankfarm and export terminals;
Forcados Tankfarm and export terminals in Delta State operated
respectively by Anglo-Dutch Shell, Chevron/Texaco Overseas, Agip ENI,
ExxonMobil.
“The history of our communal lives is terror of poverty, inhumanity and
desolate living conditions. However, when you move into these facilities
operated by the multinational oil corporations, they are living like Kings
and Presidents.
“For over five decades, we had given multinational oil corporations and
their collaborator, the Nigerian state peace, cooperation and love for the
crude oil to flow unhindered from our land.
“The continuous tranquility is only manifesting in the development of
mountains, rock, valleys, deserts and lagoon, but the Niger Delta
territory continually alienated from all types of development and all
essence of quality human life, while all successive governments worship
the crude oil taken from the region. Our communities and the people are
only good at securing the pipelines, oil and gas facilities.
“We are calling on the international community, especially Britain,
France, the United States of America, Russia, China and European Union to
speak up against this ongoing terror and come to the aid of the Niger
Delta, as witnesses to this grave inhumanity and history of terror
perpetuated against the people of the Niger Delta daily.
“This history of terror, we the Niger Delta Avengers will resist and
correct with every means necessary. We have nothing to lose in the battles
ahead; justice, they say is only found within the structure of a nation
state.
“Rather than provide this justice the Nigerian government has decided to
mobilize her military might to intimidate, torture, maim, victimize and
bombard a section of the nation state and her citizenry to allow the free
flow of our oil.
“Some persons, groups, and commentators may ask what the people of Niger
Delta want? We are not like some of these personalities who run champagne
parties or turn Rivers State Government House into a house patrimony of
godsons. They say the progress and success of a nation state is the
reflection of her constitution that is not manufactured to favour some
section and excludes the yearnings and aspirations of others; but the
indwelling spiritual and historical development of its people.”