Ex-militants blow up crude oil pipeline in Delta

Posted by admin Delta, Headlines, Niger Delta, State News Wednesday, March 20th, 2013

By Emma Amaize

WARRI- EX-MILITANTS, in the early hours of Tuesday, bombed a crude oil pipeline, belonging to the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, located between Evwreni Edjekota and Ewu in Ughelli North Local Government Area.

A source told Vanguard, “Those who carried out the explosion are the same group that exploded a gas pipeline in Ughelli axis, recently. Their anger is that they were not documented for the post amnesty programme by the Federal Government after surrendering their arms to the Joint Task Force in 2001.”

“They gave the Federal Government a seven-day ultimatum to document them or return their arms, but nothing was done about the matter, that was why they struck again today (yesterday)”, he added.

However, a top official of the Amnesty Office, Abuja, who disowned the ex-militants, told Vanguard, “We are not even sure they are ex-militants, it is you (Vanguard) that is telling me now. Anybody, who is an ex-militant that surrendered his arms and accepted amnesty, took an oath that he would not return to such criminal act anymore and so, I do not believe they are ex-agitators.”

“If they are, they have broken the agreement and my take is that security agents should identify them and take care of them because they are criminals. The amnesty programme is not an everlasting programme, some people have been documented for the programme and this office is handling their training,” he added.

It was gathered that the ex-militants who exploded the crude oil pipeline did not meet with resistance and returned to base safely.

The action committee of the third phase ex-militants that launched the attack, in a statement, said, “At the expiration of the seven-day ultimatum, third phase ex-militants, who the Federal Government did not register, about 12.26 am, this morning (Tuesday) , in Ughelli axis in Delta State, blew up a pipeline, located between Evwreni Edjekota and Ewu.”

“The fire is still on as we send this message, this is just the beginning in the Niger-Delta region. We will not sleep until government gives us our amnesty slots. For the avoidance of doubt, we are the undocumented ex-militants who the federal government asked to submit all the arms they have early 2011, yet they refused to include us in the recent documentation.

“All our reports are in the hands of government and they excluded us, we are still begging the government to give us back our arms and we gave them seven-days ultimatum to reason with us. Nevertheless, government did not respond, this is to say government has called for war.

“We will start exploding all flow stations and pipelines belonging to oil companies in Delta state, now we want to face the oil companies if they did not intervene in this matter and resolve the problem.

“Another five-day ultimatum is hereby given for the companies to to act, they should be warned, next time, it is operation no mercy”, statement added

Via Vanguardwp_posts