The leading militant group operating in the oil-rich region of southern Nigeria, the Niger Delta Avengers has claimed that it has blown up pipelines belonging to Chevron and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
“At 10pm Niger Delta Avengers blew up Chevron Well 10 close to Otunana flow station,” Brigadier General Mudoch Agbinibo, spokesman of the group, disclosed this in a brief statement on the group’s website.
“Other attacks were carried out at 11:15pm. Niger Delta Avengers blow up NPDC Manifold close to Banta and two PPMC/NNPC crude oil trunk Lines,” the statement said.
The statement doesn’t say which day the attacks occurred, but it is assumed that they happened on Monday, July 4, 2016. The group had announced previous attacks on 5 major pipelines and oil installations over the weekend.
Monday, Twitter suspended the account of the Avengers for undisclosed reasons.
Who are the Niger Delta Avengers
Niger Delta Avengers is a new militancy group that is operating in the oil-rich region of Southern Nigeria.
The militants say they are waging a war for a free Niger Delta Republic in what it tags, Operation Red Economy, with a view of halting crude oil production in Nigeria to force the government to grant the group’s demands.
The Avengers claim it has reduced oil production in the country to less than one million barrels a day. An analyst at VOA News corroborates the militants’ claims saying that oil production has dropped below one million barrels a day due to the waves of attacks on pipelines and oil installations.
The militant group has released its rules of engagement and says that it doesn’t kill anybody or attack oil workers or soldiers. The Delta Avengers called on all other groups operating in the region to abide by these rules of engagement. “We need God now, more than ever,” the group said in a statement.
The Niger Delta Avengers has presented an 11-point demand to President Muhammadu Buhari and the first is the implementation of the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference. [Download Conference report HERE.]
Pro-Biafra secessionist group, Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, has pledged “total allegiance” to the Niger Delta Avengers extolling the militant group for supporting the cause of a free Biafra. MASSOB embraces the tenets of nonviolence. It is led by Ralph Uwazuruike, a lawyer.
Last week, the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, another secessionist group pledged its support for the Niger Delta Avengers, saying the groups’ ideal of freedom align.
