A new militant group, Niger Delta Avengers, has on Thursday, May 26, 2016 blown up a major pipelines that supplies gas to Escravos tank farm in Delta State.
In a set of tweets, the militant group announced its latest action and said it was because the owner of the facility, Chevron failed to heed its warning of May 12 telling the oil giant not to fix a major crude pipeline which the group destroyed earlier in May.
https://twitter.com/NDAvengers/status/735606785718026240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/NDAvengers/status/730658167131099136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
This attacks comes, approximately four hours after it was disclosed that the federal government may have begun to bribe the group to stop its campaign against oil production in the country.
The main opposition party in Nigeria, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) revealed late Wednesday that Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, the minister of state for petroleum resources had concluded a deal to bribe the militants with $10 million to stop its campaign against oil production in the troubled Niger Delta region of the country.
The minister of state for petroleum had last week declared that the renewed restiveness in the oil-rich region of the Niger Delta has cut production by 800,000 barrels per day. Kachikwu has also said that a military solution will not solve the problem of militancy in the Niger Delta.
This latest action coincides with the group’s ultimatum to oil companies to stop production and vacate the region.
This week Nigeria’s hardline army chief, Lt. General Tukur Buratai has sworn to deal with the militants. “The Niger Delta Avengers are not avenging anything,” the army general retorted. “They are just criminals. We will fish them out.”
Buratai has been accused of genocide in army massacre of followers of the Shi’ite sect in Zaria, Kaduna and in Aba and Onitsha – cities in the South East – against unarmed pro-Biafra protesters.
