The new militant group operating in the oil-rich region of southern Nigeria, the Niger Delta Avengers has announced a new attack on Agip pipeline in Bayelsa State even as the group calls on the international community to intervene in the crisis in the Niger Delta.
In a tweet, the new militant group claimed responsibility for attack on Obi Obi Brass Trunk line. “It is Agip ENI’s major crude oil line in Bayelsa State,” the group said. The attack occurred at 3am on Friday, July 10, 2016.
https://twitter.com/NDAvengers/status/741162729935896577
This latest attack comes as the group made an attempt to appeal to the international community to step in and ensure that justice in the ownership of natural resources is done in Nigeria.
In a lengthy editorial on its website titled, Enough of The Injustice, the Niger Delta Avengers decried the devastation that oil exploration and exploitation has done to the environment and communities in the Niger Delta Region and called for a change in the structure of Nigeria.
The Avengers also celebrated the news that foreign refineries are no longer accepting crude oil from Nigeria. “It is good as foreign refineries have stop buying Nigerian oil because the Nigerian state has been robbing the Niger Delta of her oil and gas. We will inform the international community when we are opened for business,” the group said in a grammatically challenged message.
https://twitter.com/NDAvengers/status/741164618731651072
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.
