Niger Delta militants have blown up three major pipelines belonging to AGIP, an oil giant, in Bayelsa State. According to a local source, who spoke with The Trent, the attacks were “well co-ordinated” and appear to be the work of the Niger Delta Avengers.
The pipelines were attacked at about 3.00am on Friday, July 8, 2016; one pipeline is at Goldkiri, another is close to Obama, while the third one is a pipeline supplying gas to Brass, the source disclosed.
The leading militant group operating in the oil-rich region of southern Nigeria, the Niger Delta Avengers is yet to claim responsibility for these attacks which, is said to mean a slash of at least 80,000 barrels per day in Nigeria’s oil production.
The militant group 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 claims 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.]
President Muhammadu Buhari recently rejected the Avengers’ demands saying that the unity of Nigeria is non-negotiable. The president’s first reaction to the Avengers was to declare war against them. He later promised to “crush them” as he did Boko Haram. That position has shifted to begging them in the ‘name of Almighty God’ to stop the attacks.
