By Ovie Okpare
Warri – Niger Delta militants have blown up another major oil delivery line belonging to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company at Ogor-Oteri in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State.
A community source told our correspondent that there were explosions in the area around 3am on Tuesday during a downpour.
A militant group, the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate, which threatened to attack oil facilities in the upland parts of the region, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The group in a statement issued by its spokesman, Aldo Agbalaja, said, “At about 0300hrs of today Tuesday, 30 August 2016, the uproot team B of the NDGJM brought down the Ogor – Oteri major delivery line Operated by NPDC/Shoresline.”
The statement asked oil companies operating in the region to evacuate their staff from Warri and Port-Harcourt Refineries to avoid being hurt in further attacks in the coming days.
It also announced that the Pigging Manifold in Agbarha had been marked for attack.
The group said, “To this end, we are alerting all those working in the UQCC/UPS Erhomukokwarien in Ughelli, Eriemu Pigging Manifold in Agbarha, Otorogun Gas Plant, Olomoro Flow Station, Warri Refinery, Port-Harcourt Refinery Eleme, Ob-Ob And Obite Gas Plants in Omoku to evacuate because what is coming to those facilities is beyond what anybody has seen before.
“We do not want innocent blood being spilled therefore we advise all indigenes living in the vicinities of the facilities to relocate for the time being.”
The group accused militant groups that are willing to negotiate with the Federal Government under the arrangement by Chief Edwin Clark of being only after the money.
“Those in the field just for the money will quickly rush to align with the Pa E.K Clark’s arrangement because they were, as a matter of fact, created by some of the people co-travelling with Clark,” it said.
“We want to reiterate our lack of confidence in the Clark-led arrangement, Chief Clark is not the leader of the whole of Niger Delta, he can hold the front for the Ijaw nation but definitely not for all the ethnic nations in the region.”
It argued that “if there shall be a negotiation, it must be seen and indeed, must be in actual sense, be representing all the individual nations of the region equally.”
