Agip attack: JTF launches manhunt for masterminds

Joint Task Force, JTF, in the Niger Delta, codenamed Operation Pulo Shield, has launched a manhunt for the alleged masterminds of weekend attack on the Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC, facility in the mangrove swamp of Brass in Bayelsa East senatorial district. Already, the names of the suspects, it was gathered, are with the security forces.

Meanwhile, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta, MEND, yesterday, dared the JTF on the Niger Delta, warning that in the next few weeks, when it carries out few major bomb attacks, the military task force would regret its cynical comments regarding weekend’s resumption of hostilities by the group.

MEND also said the South-African government, which, through its Ministry of Internal Affairs, claimed the Nigerian government would protect the South-African investments in its bombing list, would learn a bitter lesson.

Ex-militants bomb hotel

This came as former militants, undergoing training under the Federal Government Amnesty programme, yesterday, bombed the Lawconfab Hotel, Osubi in Okpe Local Government Area of Delta State, which served as their temporal home since last year.

The ex-militants alleged that the consultant was colluding with the management of the hotel to deprive them of their entitlements and shelled the building with dynamites.

The hotel management and a source close to the consultant, Generic College, however, described the allegation as unfounded.

MEND spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, in statement said: “We wish to respond to the ignorant comments of the spokesperson of the JTF, Col Timothy Antigha,  and the government of South Africa through its Ministry of International Affairs.

“JTF spokesperson in his little mind failed to comprehend the gravity of the situation unfolding in the Niger Delta and attributes our attack on the Agip pipeline to instigation by imaginary persons interested in benefiting from the fraud that was the disarmament process in the Niger Delta.

“The Nigerian government claims to have disarmed more people than exist in the Nigerian Army with only 2,000 weapons to show for all their trouble. The lull in fighting by all groups in the Niger Delta is being used to acquire more sophisticated weapons to ensure that our next assault on the Nigerian oil industry expels western oil companies once and for all. There is nothing the Nigerian military can do to halt us.

“Agip cleverly indicated that 4,000 barrels of its production was affected by our attack. The reality is that close to 200,000 bpd of Nigerian crude exports were affected by our attack as their trunk line served to transport crude oil for other oil companies as well. This translates to a daily loss of at least 20 million us dollars,” the group added.

Identity of masterminds

JTF spokesperson, Lt. Col Antigha, who spoke of its manhunt for the perpetrators of the attack, called on those involved to turn  themselves in, in their own interest before the long arm of the law caught up with them.

Antigha, in a statement in Yenagoa, said the special security outfit had uncovered the identity of those behind the attack on the oil installation.

The statement reads: “Following the dynamite explosion which compromised Agip manifold at Brass on Friday night, the JTF has identified those behind the dastardly act. Consequently, these suspects are advised to turn themselves in for interaction with authorities of JTF in Yenagoa, latest February 8, 2012.”