…Gives oil companies 48hrs to evacuate from region
Oscarline Onwuemenyi
11 August 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – A fresh group of agitators, Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate, has issued a stern warning to the Nigerian government that refineries in the upland region of the country would be destroyed in 48 hours.
The group, according to a statement obtained by our correspondent in Abuja, blamed the Federal Government for marginalisation and deprivation of basic infrastructures suffered by indigenes in the Niger Delta.
The agitators further stated that the Federal government of Nigeria had been one sided in their approach to peaceful dialogue.
Describing the federal and state governments from the region as oppressors, they stated that money meant for development of the region in been looted by past administrations.
However, they advised oil firms operating in the region to evacuate their personnel from the region, especially in the Ogba/Egi axis of Rivers state, Urhobo/Isoko/Ndokwa axis of Delta state and other upland oil producing areas, within the next 48 hours.
The statement reads: “We have keenly watched developments in the country in recent times, developments that are most depressing, very much depicting the marginalization and subjugation of the hapless people of our region.
“We have thought very deeply about the ongoing shenanigan and play-acting going on between the federal government and some self-styled ‘Niger Delta agitators’ and thought if we fail to make our own statement now, then there will be no future for the larger Niger Delta region.”
The group charged that, “For the avoidance of doubts, the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate is not in the mold of the various criminal gangs that have so far paraded themselves as fighting for the interest of the people of the Niger Delta, but who indeed have been engaged in fight for personal enrichment.
“We are not one of them. We are out to tell the world that there is a Niger Delta that is made up of many tribes and tongues, the people of whom have so far suffered both local and national oppression.
“We have come at this point to ensure that our oppressors, being the federal government, the state governments in the six core Niger Delta states who have received billions of dollars over the past years but have brought little or no development to the region and the so-called super-ethnic nations, who have yielded to greed and wickedness and have exposed the rest of us in the oil-rich, but deeply impoverished region, to crippling squalor.”
It added that the Federal government and the oil multinational companies have been making a very grave mistake by equating the interest of the Ijaw people as that of all the tribes of the region.
“Indeed, this is a mistake that is about to take a more devastating toll than has ever been seen or experienced in the history of Nigeria. Any moment from now, we shall be making a loud statement which we believe should be loud enough for all to see and take seriously and then afterwards state our demands.
“We have considered this ‘coming statement’ reluctantly inevitable because of the recalcitrance of federal authorities, as well as oil giants; they both have decided to ignore calls to reason and have made violence the only option.
“Just as in the 2009 experience, the federal government and oil companies have started yet another round of negotiation with the Ijaw front, in the name of all the people of the Niger Delta. This will not work. Since they do not regard the assets in our areas important enough to be protected, we shall root them all out of the length of the Niger Delta. We don’t want to make this mistake any longer, violence pays as it has become the only voice that government gives hearkens to.
“Finally, we are asking all the oil multinationals still in the upland of our region; Agip, Total, Shell, Mobil, Shorelines, Neconde, E.D Western, Seplat and others to commence the evacuation of their personnel from the region, especially in the Ogba/Egi axis of Rivers state, Urhobo/Isoko/Ndokwa axis of Delta state and other upland oil producing areas, within the next 48 hours.
“We also want to bring it to the attention of the federal government and the NNPC that the refineries in Warri (Urhobo land) and Port Harcourt (Eleme) and the gas plant in Otorogun will all come down in few days from now.
“We just hope that the Nigerian government will continue ignoring us so that we can perfect what those in the riverine area started.”
