Militant group, Niger Delta Avengers, has threatened to return to the creeks in an apparent move to resume hostilities, including the destruction of oil installations.
In a statement on its website on Saturday, the avengers said they were returning in an ‘Operation Humble’ and vowed to destroy targeted oil installations operating in the region.
The threat by the group may not be unconnected with the continued delay by the Federal Government to constitute a substantive board for the Niger Delta Development Commission.
A coalition of ex-militants had recently in Akwa Ibom State threatened to embark on mass protests across the country if a substantive board of the NDDC was not reconstituted within 14 days.
The coalition argued that it was illegal for the NDDC’s Interim Management Committee to supervise the forensic audit of the agency.
But the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has assured that the forensic audit report would be ready soon and the board of the interventionists agency would follow.
However, the avengers, after a meeting of its high command, said it had lost confidence in all sociocultural groups like the Pan Niger Delta Forum, saying the groups were hobnobbing with the Federal Government, which they said was turning a deaf ear to issues in the region.
The avengers said, “This operation shall be code-named ‘Operation Humble’ and it’s aimed at bringing down targeted oil installations in the Niger Delta capable of humbling the economy into a permanent recession.
“This mission is also targeted at political actors, who are collaborating with the Nigerian government to undermine the interest of the Niger Delta people.
“There is no doubt that the Nigerian government has continued to turn a deaf ear to our demands and the rising challenges in the country because the pipelines that crisscross our lands are left untouched, allowing dollars to flow into the federal treasury on a daily basis for mismanagement.
“We shall spare no single oil installation within our range of strategic targets marked for destruction in the coming days, and we bet the Nigerian government will be humbled to return to the drawing board and chart an all-inclusive course by the time we are done with our action plan.
“Members of our strike teams across the Niger Delta are commanded to be on red alert, awaiting precise strike plans as mapped out by the high command of the NDA.”
Copyright PUNCH.
