Niger Delta militants have blown up another major pipeline in Delta State despite the ongoing military “Operation Crocodile Smile” in the region.
An Urhobo militant group, Niger Delta Greenland Justice Movement (NDGJM) in the early hours of today, blew up the Ogor-Oteri major delivery line, operated by the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company NNPC and Shorelines Petroleum in the state.
The group in a statement by its leader, “Gen” Aldo Agbalaja, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that at about 3.00 hours, its Uproot Team B, launched “Operation Crocodile Tears” since the military had launched “Operation Crocodile Smile” to worsen the Niger Delta crisis.
The group’s statement read: “Recent developments around our region, especially as it concerns the issue of justice and our inalienable right to protect our heritage, have proven us right all along. Now it has become clearer who is serious about getting justice for our people and who has been using the name of the region and the destinies of all our peoples to feather their nests, raising dusts merely to harass the Nigerian state and the oil multinationals into parting with money.”
“Although some selfish machinery, merely put together to achieve some pecuniary ends, has been parading in the name of the peoples of the Niger Delta, the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate will not be derailed on its mission to getting justice for the people.”
The group said those who want to join the self acclaimed leaders of the region to make quick money in the arrangement they had put together were free to do so, but it lacked confidence in the show they put together, calling it a pan Niger Delta initiative.
It said those people could speak for the Ijaw nation, but certainly not all the nations in the region, adding: “When lines are blurred, justice is most likely to be miscarried. 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.”
The group added: “The drama that trailed the visit of some Ijaw royal fathers to the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, in Abuja recently is more reason why equity must be a factor in setting up a body that will dialogue on behalf of all the peoples of the Niger Delta.”
“If the said leader could not respect the royal fathers of his ethnic nation, if he is lording his will over them, what chance do other nations have, which do not have adequate representation?
“That said, the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate will no longer sit quietly watching the endless harassment of our people in various parts of the region by the Nigerian military. We had once warned against the victimization and harassment of defenseless people of the region, especially in the creeks, but rather than heed, the Nigerian military has increased its presence and made life more difficult for our people.
“They are now killing our people on the basis of mere suspicion, this cannot continue,” it vowed.
“With the launch of their ‘Operation Crocodile Smile’, the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate is also serving a notice on the commencement of our ‘Operation Crocodile Tears.’ It shall from now on be an eye for an eye; for every military atrocity carried out in the creeks and hinterland of the Niger Delta, the Nigerian armed forces will have the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate to contend with.”
“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 are 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 world should, however, note that the bloodbath that is about to commence in our already beaten, battered, squeezed and impoverished homeland, the Niger Delta. It is all the baby of the Nigerian government; they are the people, who are in one breath preaching resolution through dialogue and also breathing bullets and bombs on a troubled, but trusting people.
“Hold the Nigerian President responsible for the genocide that his armed forces is about to unleash on our people,” Agbalaja said.