Breaking News: New militant group fulfils threat, blows up pipeline in Delta

BREAKING: Less than 48 hours after threat; Militants carry out deadly attack Omotayo Yusuf Yesterday 152691 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Send email The Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate has carried out its threat by blowing up oil installations in the upland of the Niger Delta region. The destruction of the pipeline was carried out on Wednesday, August 10 which is less than 48 hours after the group issued a threat to carry out its planned vandalism. The Punch reports that the group claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was part of its “Operation Zero” which is aimed at demolition of oil facilities. The group had issued a deadly warning to the president Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government on Tuesday, August 9 that in a few days, refineries in the region will be destroyed. In a statement signed by Gen. Aldo Agbalaja who is the spokesperson of the group, he urged oil workers in the region to evacuate as the level of violence it will commit in the coming days will be enormous. Part of the statement it issued read: “We have keenly watched developments in the country in recent times, developments that are most depressing, very much depicting the marginalization and subjugation of the hapless people of our region. “We have thought very deeply about the ongoing shenanigan and play-acting going on between the federal government and some self-styled ‘Niger Delta agitators’ and thought if we fail to make our own statement now, then there will be no future for the larger Niger Delta region”. Continuing in the statement, he said; “for the avoidance of doubts, the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate is not in the mold of the various criminal gangs that have so far paraded themselves as fighting for the interest of the people of the Niger Delta, but who indeed have been engaged in fight for personal enrichment. “We are not one of them. We are out to tell the world that there is a Niger Delta that is made up of many tribes and tongues, the people of whom have so far suffered both local and national oppression. READ ALSO: Buratai condemns killing of soldiers on duty “We have come at this point to ensure that our oppressors, being the federal government, the state governments in the six core Niger Delta states who have received billions of dollars over the past years but have brought little or no development to the region and the so-called super-ethnic nations, who have yielded to greed and wickedness and have exposed the rest of us in the oil-rich, but deeply impoverished region, to crippling squalor”. “Federal government and the oil multinational companies have been making a very grave mistake by equating the interest of the Ijaw people as that of all the tribes of the region. Indeed, this is a mistake that is about to take a more devastating toll than has ever been seen or experienced in the history of Nigeria. “Any moment from now, we shall be making a loud statement which we believe should be loud enough for all to see and take seriously and then afterwards state our demands.