Avengers Claims Bombing Another Agip Pipeline In Bayelsa

Rampaging militant group, Niger Delta Avengers on Friday said it blown up the Obi Obi Brass Trunk line, a major crude oil pipeline belonging to Italian oil giants, Agip in Bayelsa state.

Industry source said an explosion rocked the pipeline around 3:am Friday morning, leaving the crude lines shattered.

The militant group which claimed responsibility for the attack on its Twitter handle said; "3:am of Friday @NDAvengers blow up the Obi Obi Brass Trunk line belonging to Agip ENI. It is Agip's Major Crude oil Line in Bayelsa State".

NDA in a footnote that followed the tweet however expressed delight that foreign refineries had allegedly stopped buying Nigerian crude oil ostensibly because Nigeria state has been robbing the Niger Delta of her oil and gas resources, the group added.

Meanwhile, source said an oil facility believed to be operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, around Ogidigben, Warri South West Local in Delta State was blew up Thursday evening.  

The blast occurred along the Chanomi Creek around Ogidigben area about 8.00 pm, sources said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the said attack.

Niger Delta Avengers Says ‘Enough Is Enough’, Call On World Powers to Come To N’Delta Aid Before Nigeria Goes Sudan Way

Resurgent militia group, the Niger Delta Avengers have declared “enough is enough” to what it called history of terror, oppression, injustice, poverty in the oil-rich Niger Delta region by successive government in Nigeria.

The group declared on Thursday that before Nigeria will go the Sudan way, the international community should come to the aid of the region to achieve its quest for peaceful self-determination and control of oil resources derivable from the region.

Specifically, NDA called on Britain, France, and United State of America, Russia, China and European Union to speak up against the “terror” meted out on the Niger Delta region by the successive government in Nigeria.

In a statement by its spokesman, ‘Brig-Gen’ Mudoch Aginibo, NDA vowed to resist with any means necessary the years-long “injustice and underdevelopment in the Niger Delta, declaring that they have nothing to lose in the “battles ahead”.

It recalled that since the day crude oil was discovered in commercial quantity and quality in Oloibiri in the present day Bayelsa state; “what we have being asking from successive governments in Nigeria is portable drinking water in the midst of plenty of water mass, electricity, roads, employment, quality education/educational facilities, resource control, participation in the oil business and inclusive governance that will engender substantial freedom”.

The Avengers which have wreck some much havoc to oil installations in the country in recent times, held that what the region has gotten all the years has been; “terror of poverty, inhumanity and desolate living conditions”.

According to them, successive government in Nigeria had used resources from the region since the days of Oloibiri to develop mountains, rock, valleys, deserts and lagoon outside the region but have continue to “alienate the Niger Delta region from all types of development and all essence of quality human life”.

The group mentioned oil facilities in the region of which the Nigeria state have allegedly ripped off the region to includes; “Oloibiri, Brass LNLG and Export Terminals in Bayelsa; Bonny LNLG and Export Terminals in River state; ExxonMobil in Akwa Ibom; Escravos EGTL/ Tank Farm and Export Terminals; Forcados Tank Farm and Export Terminals in Delta state operated respectively by Anglo-Dutch Shell, Chevron/Texaco Overseas, Agip ENI, ExxonMobil”.

They said that those who operate these facilities in the region live like “Kings and Presidents” whereas the region which produce Nigeria main economy stay is stripped of any tangible infrastructure.

The group therefore vowed to correct what it called “history of terror” by successive governments in Nigeria which it declared “worships the crude oil taken from the region”.

They maintained that instead of doing the needful the government had decided to “mobilise her military might to intimidate, torture, maim, victimise and bombard a section of the nation state and her citizenry to allow the free flow of our oil.

“For over five decades, we have given the multinational oil corporations and their collaborators, 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.

“Meanwhile all successive governments worships the crude oil taken from the region. Our communities and the people are only good at securing the pipelines, oil and gas facilities. What a tragedy?

“We are calling on the international community especially Britain, France, the United State 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 mobilise her military might to intimidate, torture, maim, victimise and bombard a section of the nation state and her citizenry to allow the free flow of our oil.

“They says 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 yearning and aspirations of others; but the indwelling spiritual and historical development of its people.

“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.

“Finally, 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. Enough is enough”.

Ijaw Communities To Niger Delta Avengers: Don't Make Our Communities Theatre Of War

Coalition of Ijaw Communities in Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South West Local Government Area of the Delta state have urged the perpetrators of multiple attack on pipelines belonging to NNPC and Chevron Nigeria Limited to desist from the dastardly act and stop making Gbaramatu Kingdom their theatre of war.

While condemning the attacks in a joint statement issued over the weekend by Chairman of Inikorogha community in Warri South West Local Government Area, Comrade Christopher Ejoh, Chief Isaiah Ukulor and Chief Felix Ejoh, and made available to newsmen, the group expressed concern that the militants were targeting facilities within Gbaramatu Kingdom and other Ijaw enclave, thus giving Gbaramatu Kingdom a bad name and subjecting the locals in Ijaw Communities to perpetuate fear of possible military invasion of their land.

They said that besides the economic sabotage and environmental degradation which the perpetrators were causing the Nigeria state and entire Niger Delta region, the psychological effects on the locals and the immediate environment were enormous as the residents each time a pipeline is sabotage jostle for fear of being caught along the firing line.

The leaders said that the attacks were inimical to the socio-economic development of the area and counterproductive to the development plans of the federal government and multinationals who were carrying out repair work on some earlier sabotage pipelines in the communities.

They lamented that the Nigerian Gas Company NGC, pipelines that have been commissioned earlier after their repairs by Ocean Marine Solution, a seriving firm handling pipeline repair jobs for NGC in the area were among the lines attacked in Inikorogha and Bafan communities but urged the company not to be discouraged to terminate the pipeline surveillance job of which some of the communities are beneficiaries.

Besides, they also condemned the sabotaging of the Chevron trunk line in Abiteye, Alero, Dibi, Otunana and Makaraba flow stations, which feed a major Chevron's tank farm in Escrovos, Warri saying that there was no reasonable justification for the twin attacks.

"We are seriously pained by what is going on around Gbaramatu Kingdom and it environs. We condemned in its entirety these attacks and want to appeal to the perpetrators to stay away from our communities.

"Our communities should not be a battle field, because we are at peace with NGC and other multinationals around us. NGC in particularly have been of great help to us, the electricity we are enjoying today was provided by them and we have no course to be in any disagreement with them, the statement said.

The statement however urged the perpetrators to settle their differences with whosoever they have issue with and stop using the Ijaw Communities as theatre of their war.

"We are always subjected to apprehension and fear whenever a pipeline is atrack. Our people no longer sleep with both eyes closed because of fear of the unknown.

"Few days ago, we saw a naval chopper hovering around our communities taking photography and many people started running into the bushes and sheltering because they thought the army had come to invade them so we are appealing to both the perpetrators and the military not to make Gbaramatu a theatre of war again. We are begging the perpetrators of these acts to take the fight somewhere else".

They however called on the military to exercise caution in its bid to hunt down the perpetrators of the heinous act because of residents leaving around the impacted communities saying that the army should not by any way make innocent communities culprits in the militant onslaught.