The federal government, yesterday, deployed an armada of
five warships, 100 gunboats and fighter jets to the creeks of the Niger Delta,
in response to continued bombing of oil and gas pipelines by Niger Delta
Avengers, NDA. This heightened tension in the coastal communities of Southern
Ijaw Local Government Area, even as helicopter gunships were seen hovering at
low altitude in the predominantly.....
riverine council.
It was gathered that while the Airforce deployed the fighter
jets and helicopter gunships, the Army swooped on four more Ijaw communities in
Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South West Local Government Area, Delta State, for the
militants. Bayelsa travellers from the hinterland, confirmed the large military
presence in the tricky mangrove swamp of the council, which at the height of
youth militancy, had the largest concentration of militant camps in the Delta.
“There is a massive security operation going on in the area. Fighter jets and
helicopter gunships have been hovering around the airspace at low level,
apparently on surveillance mission. Many of the natives are worried about the
development,” said Ayebatari, an indigene of the area. However, an Agip source
told Vanguard that the company had, amid tight security, commenced repair of
the damaged section of Tebidaba-Brass delivery line destroyed on Sunday by
militants.
“Yes, the repair work is being done under the radar,” he said in
reference to the aerial coverage by the military. Meanwhile, the invasion of
Ijaw communities, which started about 1.52a.m., on Saturday, with the take-over
of Oporoza, the traditional headquarters of the kingdom and Kurutie, also known
as “Little London,” the country home of ex-militant leader, Government
Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, Okerenkoko, Kokodigbane and Benikrukru, yesterday,
has caused food crisis in Gbaramatu clan. Residents, who fled Oporoza, three
days ago to the neighbouring Azama community, are famished, as they had not
eaten for the period, while soldiers were reportedly not allowing them to
return to the community to look for food and pick their clothes. The
traditional ruler of Gbaramatu kingdom, HRM Williams Ogboba, Oboro Gbaraun II,
narrated the ordeal of the people when the Special Adviser to the President on
Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, Brigadier-General Paul Boroh (retd),
visited him at his palace in Oporoza, Delta State, on Sunday.
He said he was
under house arrest and had not taken his bath since soldiers invaded his
kingdom, while his subjects in Oporoza had all fled. Commander, NNS Delta,
Commodore Raimi Mohammed, confirmed, yesterday, that the security agencies were
now working in synergy to rout the Avengers. Surveillance He said: “We (Navy)
use helicopter. If you spot it, you will clearly identify it as belonging to
us. You see Navy written on it. The jet fighters and surveillance craft were
deployed by Air Force to watch over the high risk areas against activities of
the oil assets vandals and anyone else involved in criminality in the area.
“There is now strengthened synergy among the security agencies to stop this
vandalism. The synergy is there. I will advise those involved to steer clear
and employ peaceful ways of agitating and engaging their minds.” The fighter
jets and surveillance aircraft were also seen flying around communities in
Gbaramatu Kingdom and Ogulagha area in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State
about 10a.m. Ijaw leader, Chief Godspower Gbenekama, and Public Relations
Officer of Oporoza Youth Executive, Paul Kirifade, confirmed the movement of
the jet fighters and aircraft in the communities. It was learned that the
fighter jets and surveillance aircraft were deployed to enable the armed forces
locate the militants, believed to be running helter-skelter and hiding in the
mangrove swamps after the occupation of Oporoza and fly down on Kurutie and
other communities, yesterday.
Our source said soldiers stormed Kurutie in six
gunboats at 4.30a.m., while the people were still asleep. A 70-year-old man,
identified as Mr. Dogood Ikekama, was allegedly molested and forced by the
soldiers to take them round some houses in the community. Meanwhile, President
Muhammadu Buhari has been asked to focus more on intelligence gathering and
collaboration with host communities in identifying the location of Niger Delta
Avengers. Chairman of Grassroots Initiative for Peace and Social Orientation
and one of the facilitators of the amnesty programme, Mr. Richard Akinaka, who
condemned the renewed attacks as not representing the intention and interest of
the Niger Delta, blamed it on protection of individual business interests of
some unscrupulous people from the region. To avoid collateral damage and
hurting innocent villagers whose lives, he said, had been battered by neglect
and lack of development, Akinaka said soldiers should desist from mass arrest
but focus on identifying where the Avengers were located and take them out. He
said: “What is happening in the region does not reflect the common interest of
the people of the Niger Delta. It is orchestrated by a few disgruntled people
for their selfish interests.
We just finished six years of a Presidency headed
by one of us, former President Goodluck Jonathan, why didn’t the Avengers carry
out their agitation during his regime? ‘’We produced a President, who did
nothing in six years to better the lot of his people, not even the road to
Otuoke was touched under him while the East-West Road was left undone; so what
justification do they have to protest now?” Vanguard gathered that Tompolo’s
father had since fled the community, following the hunt for his son but one of
his wives, who was in town managed to run into the bush with other villagers
before the soldiers reached the house. She wept uncontrollably in her location
as soldiers rummaged the house, but the soldiers, who also broke into and
ransacked other homes in the town departed at about 6a.m. The soldiers marched
into Okerenkoko, Kokodiagbene and Benikrukru community when they left Kurutie.
According to the chairman of Kokodiagbene community, Sheriff Mulade: “In the
wee hours of yesterday, the Joint Military Task Force, codenamed Operations
Pulo Shield, invaded more Ijaw communities in search of vandals and militants
bombing oil and gas facilities in Delta state. “The communities include
Benikrukru, Kokodiagbene, Kurutie and Okerenkoko, all in Warri South West
Council. According to the JTF, the operations, named Cordon and Search, was
aimed at unmasking the militants and vandals, who are perpetrating the heinous
crimes, requesting the communities to produce them,” he said. Oil production
plummets to 1.2 mbpd Nigeria’s oil production has continued to plummet as it, yesterday,
stood at 1.2 million barrels per day, against the 1.4 million barrels recorded
last week. Group General Manager, Public Affairs, Nigeria National Petroleum
Corporation, NNPC, Garbadeen Mohammed, said:
“Our production is not less than,
but about 1.2 million barrels per day.” The decline has been attributed to
increased vandalism of crude oil pipelines by vandals, as well as increasing
blow up of international oil companies’ platforms in the last two weeks.
Onokpasa decries seizure of pots of soup by soldiers All Progressives Congress,
APC, chieftain in Delta State, Mr. Jesutega Onokpasa, criticized the
confiscation of household appliances and even pots of soup by invading soldiers
in Oporoza, Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South-West council, saying such act would
only present the military as unruly and unethical. Calling on the Niger Delta
Avengers to have a rethink and embrace dialogue, he said: “Everyone in
Gbaramatu cannot be an Avenger and we cannot be talking of negotiation and at
the same time invading Oporoza. ‘’What is required is intelligence, not brute
force. These vandals could be operating from anywhere. Would they bomb a
pipeline and then remain in the area waiting for the military to come after
them? “Stopping further destruction of our oil and gas infrastructure is of
utmost priority, invading communities and going so far as confiscating
household appliances and even pots of soup, will only present the military as
undisciplined, untidy and unprofessional.”
Vanguard gathered that the greatest threat
to the lives of residents, particularly Oporoza villagers, who fled to
neighbouring Azama community since Saturday, is hunger. Chief Gbenekama and
Oporoza youths spokesperson, Kirifade, said the helpless villagers had not
eaten for three days, as there was no food in Azama community, where they
escaped to. Also, National President of Ijaw Peoples Development Initiative,
IPDI, Mr Austin Ozobo, who confirmed that hunger had hit the displaced persons,
said: “There is hunger everywhere as there is no food for the people to eat.
Food supply to the kingdom has been cut off by the military, which is not
allowing boats to come in from Warri and other areas to bring food to the
people.” Kirifade added: “It is sad that soldiers are not even allowing the
trapped villagers to get canoes to go to their homes in Oporoza to look for
food and pick up clothes. Some of them have not taken their bath since last
Saturday. “We are not Niger Delta Avengers, why should government classify
every Gbaramatu man as a Niger Delta Avenger, they should withdraw the soldiers
because it is obvious that their aim is to commit genocide. Though, we thank
God that in their indiscriminate shooting, nobody has been killed.”
source: vanguardngr
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