Emma Amaize
06 February 2012, sweetrude, WARRI – THE Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta, MEND, Monday, defied the the Joint Task Force, JTF, on the Niger-Delta, codenamed Operation Pulo Shield, saying, in the next few weeks, when it carries out few major bomb attacks, the military task force will regret its cynical comments regarding weekend’s resumption of hostilities by the militant group.
It also said the South-African Government, which, through its Ministry of Internal Affairs, claimed the Nigerian Government would protect the South-African investments in its bombing list, will learn a bitter lesson.
MEND spokesman in another internet post, Monday, by its spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, said, “The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta(MEND) wishes to respond to the ignorant comments of the spokesperson of the Joint Task Force, JTF, Col Timothy Antigha and the government of South Africa through its Ministry of International Affairs”.
“The JTF spokesperson in his little mind is failing to comprehend the gravity of the situation unfolding in the Niger Delta and attributes our attack on the Agip pipeline to instigation by imaginary persons interested in benefiting from the fraud that was the disarmament process in the Niger Delta.
“The Nigerian government claims to have disarmed more people than exist in the Nigerian Army with only two thousand weapons to show for all their trouble. The lull in fighting by all groups in the Niger Delta is being used to acquire more sophisticated weapons to ensure that our next assault on the Nigerian oil industry expels western oil companies once and for all. There is nothing the Nigerian military can do to halt us”, it stated.
The militant group asserted, “Agip cleverly indicated that 4000 barrels of its production is affected by our attack. The reality is that close to 200,000 bpd of Nigerian crude exports is affected by our attack as that trunk line served to transport crude oil for other oil companies as well. This translates to a daily loss of at least 20 million us dollars”
It added, “To the South African government, we accept your challenge and will show you how easy it is to drive your investments out of our region. If the Nigerian government cannot protect companies like shell and chevron, how will they manage to protect an insignificant Sacoil?
“Within the next few weeks, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta will carry out a few major attacks on oil installations to demonstrate to the world the helplessness of oil companies and the Nigerian military”, it said.
After these next attacks, there will be a brief pause as we await the time agreed upon by all groups in the delta for the resumption of hostilities in the Niger Delta.
