A new militant group, the NIGER DELTA GREENLAND JUSTICE MANDATE, has claimed responsibility for the Friday morning destruction of oil pipelines operated by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) in Udu Local Government Area of Delta State.
The group made this known in a statement signed by its spokesperson, “Gen.” Aldo Agbalaja late Friday evening to TribuneOnline in Warri, Delta State through internet correspondence.
The militant group obviously from the Urhobo extraction also warned against carrying out repairs on the blown up trunk line.
“At about 0200hrs of friday 19th 2016, the formidable strike team incharge of “OPERATION ZERO” brought down another major trunk/delivery line operated by NPDC in udu local government area(urhobo) of delta state.
We would also like to warn that no repairs should take place in that pipeline pending when signals come from us.
Peace cannot be realised in an unjust environment, like we said from the onset, the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate is not just about causing calamity and delighting in chaos, rather a child of circumstance, bore to correct an injustice that has lived with us, from the time of our fathers,” it stated.
The group reiterated its earlier mandate saying: “We are in this struggle, not to create any acrimony with our friends and brothers in the riverine axis, who are equal citizens of this over sapped region, but to call the attention of the world to our peculiar experience; that we, as people of diverse tongues and orientation, have kept faith with both the Nigerian government and oil multinationals over the years, by being peaceful, patient and law abiding all through the years, but have in turn been abused and abandoned by these same supposed partners.
“They have all along taken our quietness and disposition for peace and choice for orderliness for granted. We have watched and seen that they only encourage lawlessness and violence.
We have once seen that our quietness and disposition for peace were used to shortchange our people in not too distant past and we have now rearranged ourselves, chosen the line of action they respond to.”
The group therefore demanded that the Buhari – led Federal Government should
“call an urgent and all encompassing meeting of genuine stakeholders of the core Niger Delta communities, especially those from oil producing communities.”
According to it, “This is to create a truly Niger Delta platform, where real issues of injustice and what correcting them should look like. The oil multinationals must be part of this and the United Nations should serve as witness to this along side some very credible international NGOS.”
While it added that it was not opposed to the on-going negotiations between the federal government, oil companies and the Ijaw elements of the region, “we are not comfortable that this is going on with an impression that it is the whole of Niger Delta that is involved.
We demand that the federal government identify with a selection of very credible persons from all regions who are grass rooted, who understands the pains of our people and not some political criminals with names who are looking for breast pocket money.”
The militants also called for the “immediate cessation of military harassment of people and communities in our region, especially in the Ijaw areas.
They warned the Federal Government to shelve its plan “to attack communities in the creek in the name of wiping out militancy,” adding that “such purported plans should seize forthwith as an injury to one is an injury to all; otherwise, the federal government should be ready to wipe out the entire uplands also.”
The group also added its voice to the calls that headquarters of all oil multinationals be relocated back to their various base of operation immediately.
It advised militant groups from the Ijaw extraction to focus on issues affecting the entire Niger Delta region and its people, saying “It does nobody any good if one usurps the rights and identity of the other, all of us suffer the same injustice and it is an injustice extended if only you are in focus, while the rest of the region pines away. Live and let live.”