Niger
Delta Avengers, the new militant group that has launched multiple attacks on
oil and gas installations in the Niger Delta region, has struck yet again.
The
group announced its latest assault on Friday, saying it blew up a gas and crude
trunk line belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in
Warri, Delta State, late Thursday.
The
Avengers announced the attack via its Twitter handle.
The
group said that the facility was “heavily guarded” by the Nigerian military, in
an apparent attempt to mock the Nigerian armed forces’ capacity to check its
activities.
“At
11:45pm on Thursday.@NDAvengers blew up other #NNPC Gas and Crude trunkline
close to Warri. Pipeline that was heavily guarded by Military,” the group
tweeted.
The
spokesman for the joint military tacks force in the area, Isa Ado, could not be
immediately reached for comments, but security sources and residents in the
area confirmed the attack.
“We
are in the process of accessing the incident and the cause and details are not
yet available,” a military personnel deployed to the area said.
Residents
of the area said the attack on the crude pipeline caused an oil spill.
Augustine
Amaka, who resides in Warri, Delta State, said the spill that followed the
pipeline blast polluted the surroundings while soldiers cordoned off the area.
Eric
Omare, an aide to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, and a youth activist,
confirmed the incident on telephone on Friday.
“Another
crude pipeline was attacked Thursday night near Batan oil field in Warri,” he
said.
“There
were two attacks on Pipelines and Petroleum Marketing Company and NNPC
pipelines, following shortly after an earlier attack on Chevron in Escavos,”
Mr. Omare said.
The
so called Niger Delta Avengers had rejected a meeting recently convened in
Abuja by the federal government, warning of its readiness to carry out an
attack that will “shock the whole world”.
“The
Niger Delta stakeholder’s meeting is an insult to the people of Niger Delta.
What we need is a Sovereign State not pipeline Contracts.
“To
the IOC’s, Indigenous Oil Companies and Nigeria Military. Watch out something
big is about to happen and it will shock the whole world,” the group tweeted on
Friday.
The
group has launched several attacks on oil and gas infrastructure since February
2016, demanding a sovereign nation of the Niger Delta people.
On
Thursday, it claimed responsibility for an attack on a gas pipeline belonging
to Chevron in Delta state.
“We
warned Chevron, but they didn’t listen. NDA just blew up the Escravos tank farm
main electricity feed pipeline,” it said.
The
militants said the oil facilities were sabotaged following attempts by Chevron
to carry out repairs of main Escravos crude oil pipeline it blew up earlier.
A
spokesperson for the group, Mudoch Agbinibo, had earlier this month warned the
Nigerian government of further attacks if their demands were not met.
Last
week, Chevron’s Makaraba crude oil line was attacked on the offshore Okan
manifold in the region.
The
attack followed previous ones on the company’s facilities at Abiteye, Utunana
and Makaraba platforms in Warri South-West area of Delta State resulting in the
loss of over 40,000 barrels of oil per day.
-Premium Times
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