Militants greet Muslims, bomb Chevron manifolds

Niger Delta Avengers (NDA)

Bent on making good its ‘operation zero economy’ threat, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) yesterday blew up three Chevron manifolds : RMP 22, 23, and 24.

Then in an ironic twist, the insurgents also sent a message of goodwill to Muslims celebrating the end of Ramadan.

In a separate development, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) yesterday faulted Wednesday’s statement by President Muhammadu Buhari to Niger Delta militants that “the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable.”

They said the President’s position was an old-fashioned approach to the resolution of national problems, more so as Buhari was quoting a 1967 statement by former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon on the unity of Nigeria.

“The circumstances of the present-day Nigeria demand a renegotiation of the future unity and existence of Nigeria,” the IYC said.

According to the spokesman of the Avengers, Mudoch Agbinibo: “Between the hours of 10:50 p.m. to 11:10 p.m. our Niger Delta Avengers strike team blew up Chevron manifolds. The manifolds are RMP 22, 23 and 24. Happy Eid Mubarak to our Muslim brothers.”

In a statement hours earlier, the insurgents warned Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media, Garba Shehu, to get his records straight.

The militants were apparently angered by comments credited to Shehu who reportedly said: “Out of the blues, a group calling itself the Niger Delta Avengers, NDA sprouts. They kill soldiers and policemen. They kidnap and kill oil company workers, piracy on the high seas. They asked oil companies to stop operations and pack out of the Niger Delta region.

“They blow up oil pipelines, power and other infrastructure. They attack and kill prominent individuals, ransacking homes up and down the coastal areas, including lately, Lagos and Ogun states. All these for what?”

But the group’s spokesman insisted that it has neither killed policemen nor kidnapped oil workers or been involved in sea piracy.

“The Buhari-led government knows the people attacking soldiers and killing policemen. It’s their sleeper agents that are doing it, so they should stop accusing Niger Delta Avengers of killing, kidnapping policemen, soldiers and individuals in the region,’’ it said, adding:

“We the Niger Delta Avengers have not negotiated with anyone. So we don’t know where Mr. Garba Shehu and the National Security Adviser, General Babagana Munguno, are getting their information from.

‘‘If they have been negotiating with anybody it clearly shows they had been negotiating with fraudsters and their National Security Agency-created militant group.”

The spokesman of the IYC, Mr. Frank Omare, said the demand for restructuring Nigeria was not peculiar to the Niger Delta region but cuts across all parts of the country.

He added: “For Nigeria to make progress, President Buhari should dump his old-fashioned approach to the unity of Nigeria and face the reality of the present day situation. Nigerians want a renegotiated Nigeria that reflects a true federal state that allows people to grow at their own pace. Nigeria as constituted at present, is suffocating and the federating ethnic nationalities can no longer bear the suffocating effect of the defective structure which hampers the development of the country. It is in the interest of all Nigerians to renegotiate the future unity of Nigeria.

“Nigerians want a country that is united on mutually agreed terms and not the present defective structure. The IYC calls on President Buhari to wake up and face the reality of the situation and stop relying on outdated notion of Nigeria’s unity. Nigerians demand renegotiation.”