‘Why We Blew Up Another NPDC Pipeline in Delta’

•  Federal security operation in N’Delta a scam, militia alleges

Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba

The new militia, the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate, on Monday announced that its strike force blew up the Afiesere-Ekiugbo pipeline belonging to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) in Ughelli North LG Area of Delta State.

In a statement e-mailed to THISDAY in Asaba the group claimed that it successfully carried out the attack on the oil facility to prove the ineffectiveness of the hordes of security personnel deployed in the Niger Delta region by the Federal Government.

It said that it carried out the attack at about 11:30 pm on Sunday.
“The Opudo strike force, at about 11:30 pm on Sunday, September 18, 2016, struck the Afiesere-Ekiugbo delivery line in Ughelli, operated by NPDC/Shoreline.”

The statement signed by the spokesman of the militia, “General” Aldo Agbalaja, also warned that its destructive campaign code-named “Operation Crocodile Tears” targeting oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta outside creeks would continue until its demands were met.

“The Operation Crocodile Tears is not slowing down, but determined to achieve target”, the statement, adding, “Until the federal government takes

the proper steps, this song will continue to play.”

The group, which also had harsh words for major oil companies operating in the region, labeled the government’s new military initiative in the oil-rich region? code-named “Operation Crocodile Smile” as a scam designed to coverup financial fraud in the nation’s
“military system.”

The statement said in part, “This is to once again emphasize our earlier revelation that the so-called Operation Crocodile Smile is nothing but a scam: some jumbled job, sewn together to retire some recently embezzled military budget. Were it a serious endeavour, as the entire military system has sought to bamboozle Nigerians and the entire world to believe, the half-baked operation would have at least been reaping marginal results, asides those wrong arrests, lacking in intelligence, that it had realised.

“This is to you, Gen Buratai, let your crocodile continue to smile, your time for reckoning is at hand, probably by the time the smiley crocodile finally sinks, you will see its tears and blood. Under your nose, the very task of guarding oil assets (which we consider a waste of time, resources and a failure of priorities) will fail because you are both insincere and incompetent.

“The Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate is just starting, you are yet to see what we are about, by the time the alpha operations are initiated, you will need more than these fighter jets to keep your troops safe in any part of the Niger Delta.

“To the oil and gas companies, we have observed that you have placed your trust in the guns and fighter jets of the Nigerian armed forces, our words for you are few: keep at it and wait for your rewards, which have almost come upon you.