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No fewer than sixteen persons have been arrested as the military invaded Oporoza and Ogulagha both in Warri South West and Burutu Council Areas of Delta State respectively.
They were said to have a link to the rampaging Niger Delta Avengers, who have been destroying oil and gas pipelines in Delta State.
They were arrested over alleged involvement with the bombing of Forcados 48 Export Line belonging to Shell Nigeria Petroleum Company, SNPECo, last Thursday, by the Niger Delta Avengers, NDA.
Niger Delta Avengers which claimed responsibility for the attack on the Forcados 48″ export line, said it was because the company acted against its warning not to repair the facility, earlier bombed by the militant group.
Chairman of the umbrella body of Ijaw Youths Council, IYC, clan structure, Doubra Collins Okotete, while confirming the arrest of the six persons, accused the army of harassment, intimidation and arrest of innocent people.
“They arrested them over allegation of being involved in the recent attack on SPDC-owned export line. I want to tell you that over 50 years of oil exploration and exploitation in our community, our people have always cooperated, supported and created the enabling environment for peaceful operations, despite the marginalization shown to our people by these multinational oil companies’’, he said.
National Coalition of the Niger Delta Ex-Agitators, NCNDE, has urged the Federal Government to unmask the Avengers and bring them to face the long hand of the law as they are criminal elements allegedly sponsored by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to cause mayhem in the region.
President of NCNDE, Israel Akpodoro, said while fielding reporters’ questions, alleged that the PDP was in want of goading the Federal Government into military confrontation that might provoke public outcry, especially “the foreign communities with the ultimate aim of discrediting the All Progressives Congress, APC-led administration at home and abroad.”
‘’ the second aim of the Avengers is to cripple the Nigerian economy to give reasons for the PDP to gloat and mock the administration’’, he said, advising the Federal Government to go all out for those he described as criminal elements masquerading as freedom fighters and their sponsors.
The ex-warlord d no amount of subterfuge could make anyone believe that the bad losers in the PDP were not behind the economic saboteurs.