Niger Delta Avengers website?For real?These guys have a website?I cannot get my head round how a bunch of people can get together and go about vandalising oil and gas installations meant to bring Nigeria's economy to a standstill.The Nigerian government is partly responsible for this monster that has been created.Rather than find a lasting solution to the problem,they decided to pay off Niger Delta militants of yesterday.Now this is where the hypocrisy comes in.These leaders that were payed off in millions,did nothing to enhnace their communities that they were supposedly fighting for.
They took all the millions of dollars they were paid and invested them abroad.Building schools and hospitals and what have you not outside the country.Why didn't they invest that money in their communities?If they themselves could not develop their community when they had the resources and money,how can they blame the government? Goodluck Jonathan who is from the area,what did he do when in power in developing the Niger Delta?
All this clearly shows these so called Niger Delta avengers are only in this for the money and
nothing else.Realising that the government paid millions to their past comrades,they probably thought,hey,let's go on a destruction spree and eventually Nigeria will pay us millions to stop!
The latest news on Niger Delta avengers says the Nigerian Army has as of Sunday May 29th arrested 10 suspected militants and pipeline vandals in the Niger Delta region, on Sunday.
Commander, 4 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Benin City, Farouk Yahaya, while addressing journalists said the suspects were arrested during a cordon and search exercise conducted in Oporozoa community and its environs in Delta State. Residents of the area had decried the invasion of the community since Saturday and raised alarm over alleged intimidation of innocent residents. A resident, who simply identified himself as Raphael, said the suspects arrested were innocent people who could not run away fast enough. He said the soldiers arrested them and labelled them members of the Niger Delta Avengers while the other residents are currently taking refuge in the bush. The Niger Delta Avengers is the group that has claimed responsibility for recent attacks on oil and gas pipelines and installations. However, Mr. Yahaya, a Brigadier General, said the arrested suspects may have links with the Niger Delta Avengers. He said guns, ammunition and other equipment were recovered from them. He said the operation was conducted professionally in line with the code of conduct and rules of engagement of the Nigerian Army. The Army also reaffirmed its commitment to tackling pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta region.
This is good news considering only a few days ago,the insurgents struck again.
The group announced its latest assault on Friday, saying it blew up a gas and crude trunk line belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in Warri, Delta State, late Thursday.
The Avengers announced the attack via its Twitter handle.
The group said that the facility was “heavily guarded” by the Nigerian military, in an apparent attempt to mock the Nigerian armed forces’ capacity to check its activities.
“At 11:45pm on Thursday.@NDAvengers blew up other #NNPC Gas and Crude trunkline close to Warri. Pipeline that was heavily guarded by Military,” the group tweeted.
The spokesman for the joint military tacks force in the area, Isa Ado, could not be immediately reached for comments, but security sources and residents in the area confirmed the attack.
“We are in the process of accessing the incident and the cause and details are not yet available,” a military personnel deployed to the area said.
Residents of the area said the attack on the crude pipeline caused an oil spill.
Augustine Amaka, who resides in Warri, Delta State, said the spill that followed the pipeline blast polluted the surroundings while soldiers cordoned off the area.
Eric Omare, an aide to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, and a youth activist, confirmed the incident on telephone on Friday.
“Another crude pipeline was attacked Thursday night near Batan oil field in Warri,” he said.
“There were two attacks on Pipelines and Petroleum Marketing Company and NNPC pipelines, following shortly after an earlier attack on Chevron in Escavos,” Mr. Omare said.
The so called Niger Delta Avengers had rejected a meeting recently convened in Abuja by the federal government, warning of its readiness to carry out an attack that will “shock the whole world”.
“The Niger Delta stakeholder’s meeting is an insult to the people of Niger Delta. What we need is a Sovereign State not pipeline Contracts.
“To the IOC’s, Indigenous Oil Companies and Nigeria Military. Watch out something big is about to happen and it will shock the whole world,” the group tweeted on Friday.
The group has launched several attacks on oil and gas infrastructure since February 2016, demanding a sovereign nation of the Niger Delta people.
On Thursday, it claimed responsibility for an attack on a gas pipeline belonging to Chevron in Delta state.
“We warned Chevron, but they didn’t listen. NDA just blew up the Escravos tank farm main electricity feed pipeline,” it said.
The militants said the oil facilities were sabotaged following attempts by Chevron to carry out repairs of main Escravos crude oil pipeline it blew up earlier.
A spokesperson for the group, Mudoch Agbinibo, had earlier this month warned the Nigerian government of further attacks if their demands were not met.
Last week, Chevron’s Makaraba crude oil line was attacked on the offshore Okan manifold in the region.
The attack followed previous ones on the company’s facilities at Abiteye, Utunana and Makaraba platforms in Warri South-West area of Delta State resulting in the loss of over 40,000 barrels of oil per day.
So who are these Niger Delta Avengers and what do they want?
The Avengers claim on their website to be young, educated and well-traveled. They say they are better armed and more civilized than past militants. One thing's for sure: They are making an impact.
Nigerian Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu this week said the country's oil production has fallen by 800,000 barrels per day — to 1.4 million barrels per day — due to attacks on the nation's infrastructure, local news reported, many or perhaps most of them at the hands of the Avengers.
"We don't see this being a huge group, but at the same time, they do seem very effective," said Matthew Bey, energy and technology analyst at geopolitical research firm Stratfor.
Buhari has vowed to stamp out the Avengers, but the military has found it difficult in the past to hunt down militants in the Delta's maze of creeks. Nigeria's armed forces are also stretched thin as they wage a simultaneous, separate campaign against Muslim terror group Boko Haram in the north, and grapples with ethnic land conflicts in Nigeria's middle belt.
Both Iwilade and Akintola said the ultimate solution will require Buhari to start a dialogue with the Delta region and address the root causes of unrest.
The key is to show a greater commitment to a more-inclusive form of government that reduces marginalization and assures Buhari's anti-corruption campaign does not solely target the opposition party, Iwilade said.
Until then, the amnesty has given young, disenfranchised men a simple model, according to Ambassador Campbell.
"If you have nothing to do, go out, blow up enough and you'll get bought off," he said.