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RENEWED MILITANCY: the
Niger Delta Avengers had recently carried out several attacks including
three successive attacks which targeted among others
SPDC pipelines and now a new group, calling itself the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force has emerged.
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The Federal Government on
Monday night announced that it has set up a committee to negotiate with the
militant group, Niger Delta Avengers, that has been involved in the destruction
of oil installations in the Niger Delta region.
The
Punch report continues:
The
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director of the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, who said this in
Abuja, explained that the move was aimed at halting the deadly attacks which
had made Nigeria’s oil production plummet to 1.5 million barrels per day.
According
to him, the team that will engage the militants will be coordinated by the
Office of the National Security Adviser.
He
said other members of the team included himself, the Minister of Niger Delta
Affairs, Usani Uguru as well as selected leaders, kings and influential
individuals from the Niger Delta.
Kachikwu
said, “The President has appointed a team led by the NSA and I serve in one of
those, to begin the process of a very intensive dialogue with those caught in
the middle of this. I am sure that in the ensuing one week the intensity of
that dialogue will wrap up.
“The
NSA is going to be working with the various arms of the armed forces to descale
the intensity of military intervention in the area within a week or two so that
dialogue can take place. We are making contacts with everybody who is involved,
the ones that we can identify, through them, the ones that we can’t identify so
that there is a lot more inclusiveness in this dialogue. Our prayer is that
this works so that we resort to dialogue rather than use of force.”
On the loss recorded as a result of the attacks by the Niger Delta Avengers, Kachikwu said, “Over the last two months, we have probably lost about 600,000 barrels from various attacks of militants in the area. In terms of production, we are roughly at about 1.5 million to 1.6 million barrels a day, down from 2.2mbd which is the basis of this year’s budget and if peace reigns, obviously between now and August we will be able to recover substantial portion of this production so that the budget doesn’t suffer.”
New Niger Delta
Militant Group Warns Of Widespread Attacks
AFP
reports a new rebel group on Monday vowed to attack strategic targets across
Nigeria, despite calls for a united front but no "life-threatening
actions" from other militants who have claimed recent strikes on oil
facilities.
The
group, calling itself the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force (JNDLF), said it
would hit "all those infrastructures that were built with our oil and gas
monies in this country".
The
list of targets included the presidential villa, government ministries,
parliament, the state-run oil firm and the central bank in Abuja, plus the
offices of oil majors and the military.
"We
will make (the) federal government and oil companies suffer as they have made
the people of the Niger Delta region suffer over the years from environmental
degradation and environmental pollution," the JNDLF's "Joint
Revolutionary Council" said.
Most
of the recent attacks on oil facilities in the oil-rich south have been claimed
by the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), who want a fairer share of revenue from the
sector for local people.
President
Muhammadu Buhari has ordered enhanced security in the delta as NDA sabotage of
pipelines and attacks on installations have reduced crude production to 1.4
million barrels per day.
But
his predecessor Goodluck Jonathan, who hails from the epicentre of the unrest,
Bayelsa state, said a heavy-handed response was not the answer to the region's
woes.
"Yes,
government can always overrun restive movements and so on but the Niger delta
is too delicate," he told Bloomberg in an interview in London.
"The
level of damage will be too much for the government to bear. We used
dialogue," he said, referring to the 2009 amnesty that brought an end to
similar attacks when he was vice-president.
- 'War on oil
installations' -
Last
week the NDA denied involvement in an attack on a boat belonging to the
state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in which four soldiers
and two personnel were killed.
On
Saturday, the group appeared to confirm the emergence of other militants with
similar agendas in a statement on its website, "calling on all groups in
the region to be strong and resolute".
The
new JNDLF, which said it would carry out its threat with "missiles",
has vowed to fight troops sent to the delta to bolster the protection of key
infrastructure.
But
the NDA countered: "We must desist from any life-threatening actions that
will derail our genuine struggle for our people.
"All
groups are hereby discouraged from indulging in harassing oil workers and
soldiers... those groups with anti-aircraft missiles should dry their
gunpowder."
It
added: "The war is on oil installations."
- 'Like a McDonald's
franchise' -
The
emergence of militant outfits recalls the situation in the 2000s, when groups
with broadly similar aims came together under the Movement for the Emancipation
of the Niger Delta (MEND) banner.
The
rebels were bought off in the government-brokered amnesty deal but Buhari's
initial announcement to wind down the programme by 2018 is said to have
contributed to the re-emergence of militancy.
NDA
rebels are also thought to be sympathetic to the prominent former MEND leader
Government "Tompolo" Ekpemupolo, who is wanted on multi-million
dollar corruption charges.
The
group, however, has added self-determination for the region to its aims and
allied itself with ethnic Igbo campaigners in the southeast wanting an
independent Biafran homeland.
GRAPHITTI
NEWS HISTORY EDITS: Militancy took on more violent turns when Ijaw dominated armed groups like the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF) and the Niger Delta Vigilante (NDV) formed with political support. The intense confrontation between the NDPVF and NDV seems to have been brought about by the leader of NDPVF’s political falling out with the NDPVF’s financial supporter, one of the powerful governors in a key southsouth state following the April 2003 elections. Later a broad coalition of groups formed the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) while the earlier groups still maintained some identity and autonomy.
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