Even as the federal government has begun negotiation with militants in the
Niger Delta, a new militant group, Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate,
NDGJM, has emerged.
The group has threatened to destroy Eleme Refiner in Port Harcourt,
Rivers State, Warri Refinery and the Utorogun gas plant in Otu-Jeremi in
Ughelli South Local Government Area, Delta State in days to come if the
government does not meet its demands.
Besides, it issued a 48-hour to oil multinationals still in the upland of
the region, especially in the Ogba/Egi axis of Rivers state,
Urhobo/Isoko/Ndokwa axis of Delta state and other upland oil producing
areas to evacuate their personnel from the region.
The group lamented that all the people of the upland Niger Delta, under
whose watch the largest and most critical oil assets are located, have
been ignored over the years as government and the oil companies pander to
every whim and cough of those who have violently engaged the state.
This is contained in a statement by its Spokesman, self-styled Gen. Aldo
Agbalaja, saying: “We have keenly watched developments in the country in
recent times, developments that are most depressing, very much depicting
the marginalization and subjugation of the hapless people of our region.
“We have thought very deeply about the ongoing shenanigan and play-acting
going on between the federal government and some self-styled ‘Niger Delta
agitators’ and thought if we fail to make our own statement now, then
there will be no future for the larger Niger Delta region.
“for the avoidance of doubts, the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate is
not in the mold of the various criminal gangs that have so far paraded
themselves as fighting for the interest of the people of the Niger Delta,
but who indeed have been engaged in fight for personal enrichment.
“We are not one of them. We are out to tell the world that there is a
Niger Delta that is made up of many tribes and tongues, the people of whom
have so far suffered both local and national oppression.
“We have come at this point to ensure that our oppressors, being the
federal government, the state governments in the six core Niger Delta
states who have received billions of dollars over the past years but have
brought little or no development to the region and the so-called
super-ethnic nations, who have yielded to greed and wickedness and have
exposed the rest of us in the oil-rich, but deeply impoverished region, to
crippling squalor
Noting it is a coalition of forces across the Niger Delta region, fighting
for the interest of the region, Agbalaja said, “Federal government and the
oil multinational companies have been making a very grave mistake by
equating the interest of the Ijaw people as that of all the tribes of the
region. Indeed, this is a mistake that is about to take a more devastating
toll than has ever been seen or experienced in the history of Nigeria.
“Any moment from now, we shall be making a loud statement which we
believe should be loud enough for all to see and take seriously and then
afterwards state our demands. “We have considered this ‘coming statement’
reluctantly inevitable because of the recalcitrance of federal
authorities, as well as oil giants; they both have decided to ignore
calls to reason and have made violence the only option.
“Just as in the 2009 experience, the federal government and oil companies
have started yet another round of negotiation with the Ijaw front, in the
name of all the people of the Niger Delta. This will not work. Since they
do not regard the assets in our areas important enough to be protected, we
shall root them all out of the length of the Niger Delta. We don’t want to
make this mistake any longer, violence pays as it has become the only
voice that government gives hearkens to.
“Finally, we are asking all the oil multinationals still in the upland of
our region; AGIP, TOTAL, SHELL, MOBIL, SHORELINES, NECONDE, E.D WESTERN,
SEPLAT and others to commence the evacuation of their personnel from the
region, especially in the Ogba/Egi axis of Rivers state,
Urhobo/Isoko/Ndokwa axis of Delta state and other upland oil producing
areas, within the next 48 hours.
“We also want to bring it to the attention of the federal government and
the NNPC that the refineries in Warri (Urhobo land) and Port Harcourt
(Eleme) and the gas plant in Otorogun will all come down in few days from
now. “We just hope that the Nigerian government will continue ignoring us
so that we can perfect what those in the riverine area started”.