The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta(MEND) has threatened to carry out more attacks on the Nigerian oil industry in the next few weeks. Its aim, it said is ”to demonstrate the helplessness of oil companies and the Nigerian military”. It also wants to use the attacks to drive away western oil companies operating in the region.
MEND said it issued this statement in response to the comments of the spokespersons of the joint task force(JTF) Col Timothy Antigha and the government of South Africa through its ministry of International Affairs.
”After these next attacks, there will be a brief pause as we await the time agreed upon by all groups in the Delta for the resumption of hostilities in the Niger Delta.”
MEND said the JTF spokesperson has failed to comprehend the gravity of the situation unfolding in the Niger Delta, attributing erroneously its 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.
In the statement signed by one Jomo Gbomo the group said, “The Nigerian government claims to have disarmed more people than exist in the Nigerian Army with only two thousand 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”.
MEND said Agip cleverly indicated that 4000 barrels of its production is affected by it earlier attack. “But the reality is that close to 200,000 bpd of Nigerian crude exports is affected by our attack as that 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.”
MEND said it accepts the challenge of the South African Government and will show how easy it is to drive its investments out of Niger Delta region. “If the Nigerian government cannot protect companies like Shell and Chevron, how will they manage to protect an insignificant SacOil?
Within the next few weeks, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta will carry out a few major attacks on oil installations to demonstrate to the world the helplessness of oil companies and the Nigerian military”.
After these next attacks, there will be a brief pause as we await the time agreed upon by all groups in the delta for the resumption of hostilities in the Niger Delta.
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