Navy arrrests five suspects for bombing NNPC
pipelines
Tobi Soniyi, Damilola Oyedele in Abuja, Sylvester
Idowu in Warri and Emmanuel Addeh in Yenagoa.


Meanwhile, militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers,
said yesterday that in spite of the federal
government’s deployment of fighter jets and the
military in Delta State, it would not relent in its
violent attacks on critical oil installations in the
region.



The group, which said the heavy presence of the
military would not stop them from their planned
action that would shock the whole world, noted that
Gbaramatu, now under military siege, was just one
kingdom out the several Ijaw kingdoms spread
across seven states.


The group, in a statement signed by its
Spokesman, Brig-Gen Mudoch Agbinibo, said
emphatically, “it is not our business what goes on
in Gbaramatu Kingdom but our concern is the
innocent children, women and aged people whom
the Nigerian military has chased away from their
homes now taking refuge in the forest”.


It alleged that some people (names withheld)
benefitting from contracts for pipeline surveillance
were behind the military invasion of Gbaramatu
Kingdom in the guise of looking for the Niger Delta
Avengers.


It queried: “The question is, why the innocent
people of Gbaramatu, why the innocent pregnant
women, why unleash terror on the aged people of
Gbaramatu? Must you waste all these innocent
blood just to secure the pipeline surveillance job?”
The militant group berated the International
Community and the United Nations for looking the
other way while the military occupied the kingdom.
The NDA also took a swipe on Tompolo for
accepting the treatment being meted on his people
wondering whether he would still refer to them as
criminals.


The railings of the militants provided the
opportunity for the Nigerian Army of not wanting to
embrace dialogue yesterday.


The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, who
was represented by Brig.-Gen. J. Hamakim, at the
‘State of the Nation Conference’, organised by the
Nigerian Bar Association in Abuja yesterday said the
Army had not ruled out dialogue with the group
Speaking on the activities of the Niger Delta
Avengers in the oil rich region, Hamakim said that
dialogue with the group was not yet a realistic
option.


He was responding to a submission that
government should explore dialogue with the Niger
Delta militants instead of applying force that could
further worsen the nation’s oil production in the
region.


Hamakim, said in his response, that there was no
sign that the Niger Delta Avengers’ members were
ready for dialogue.


He said: “I quite agree that dialogue is very
important. But where it is not too obvious that the
adversary is ready to come out and talk, you can
also force such a person.


“I think that is what the Nigeria Army is trying to
do. Yes, we don’t know the group’s leader, for now;
that is the only option, possibly we have to bring
the people out to know who you can dialogue with.”
He said the activities of the group were affecting oil
production as the nation’s production had recently
further plummeted to 1.1 million barrels per day.
He debunked the allegation that soldiers who were
involved in the operations in Gbaramatu were killing
innocent residents and raped women.


“We have done our investigation and nothing like
that is happening,” he said.
He also said the demonstrations by Indigenous
Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) leading to a clash between
the protesters and security forces in Onitsha on
Monday, were not peaceful.


Hamakim said: “Remember that lives were lost,
policemen were killed, some were thrown overboard
and the military has rules of engagement.
“The question is how peaceful is the peaceful
demonstration. How peaceful was the
demonstration at that time? If it was that peaceful,
how come we lost security agencies.


“The rule of engagement is that if you feel
threatened, you have the mandate to respond. What
we can say is, that was not at all a demonstration
that you can say was peaceful.”


He regretted that other security agencies in the
country had been “overwhelmed”, a situation which
he said had necessitated the Army to move “from
the last line of defence to the first line of defence”.
In a related development, the Flag Officer Central
Naval Command, Yenagoa, Commodore Mohammed
Garba, said last night that five suspects had been
arrested in connection with the bombings of NNPC
crude pipelines in Batan community in Warri South
West Local Government.


Briefing journalists at the NNS Delta, Warri,
Commodore Garba disclosed that two of the
suspects have been moved to another military
location.


He said another three were arrested while siphing
crude oil from an oil well head close to the
bombed Batan community where the NNPC crude
lines were bombed in Batan community.


Commodore Garba denied intimidation of innocent
people in the search for members of the Niger Delta
Avengers (NDA) in both Delta and Bayelsa States.
He said the operations were in line with international
best practices noting that the “enemies of the state
are resorting to propaganda to win sympathy.
The naval boss explained that the deployment of
fighter jets and gun ships were to aide the Joint
Military operations going on in the region.


But spokesman of Gbaramatu Kingdom, Chief
Godspower Gbenekama, has accused President
Muhammadu of not having a grasp of the issues in
the Niger Delta.


‘’He’s in power , but he cannot grasp the issues in
the Niger Delta. He was in the military, but he was
mostly about capturing, molesting and gaining
ground for the government. But in a democratic
government it’s not like that.


‘’He’s still saying he’s going after this and that. He
can go after criminal elements but a situation where
you make people less human, doesn’t make sense,’’
the Ijaw chief said.


He added: “He (Buhari) should change his approach
of ‘I will kill you, I will destroy you’. The avengers
have a bad approach, but what is pushing them is
beyond the knowledge of the president.


‘’A holistic approach is needed, the amnesty
programme is just scratching the problem. The
problem of molestation, deprivation, hunger and
telling the people that they are not good enough to
be educated. Stopping work at the maritime school
is saying the same thing’’, he said.


In another development, some lawmakers from the
Niger Delta have warned the military against
compounding the crisis in the region.


Reacting yesterday to the invasion of Gbaramatu
community in Delta State by the heavily armed
soldiers, who claimed to be looking for members of
the Niger Delta Avengers, a new militant group who
had recently claimed responsibility on the attacks
of oil facilities, Hon. Daniel Reyeneiju, representing
Warri Federal Constituency of Delta State, said
deployment of troops and aerial bombardment to
the region was a wrong move and may aggravate
the situation.


Speaking with THISDAY, the lawmaker said the
same hard approach had been deployed in the
region before, and only served to aggravate the
militancy.


Reyeneiju recalled that at the height of militancy at
the inception of the late President Umaru Musa
Yar’Adua Administration, oil production dropped
from 2.2 million bpd to 800,000.
“We must have institutional memory, and be able to
examine how the issues were resolved then,” he
said.


He said that while it is necessary to bring those
involved in ‘’economic sabotage’’ to justice,
deployment of troops — who would harass innocent
civilians, is also an act of injustice against the
people of the region.


“Nobody seems to know what has caused the
resurgence of militancy in the region, because even
the Avengers have not come out with any demands,
and this makes us all worried,” Reyeneiju said.
He advised the federal government to work closely
with the state governments and leaders of the Niger
Delta states.


In the same vein, Hon. Diri Nonye from Bayelsa
said the scenario of the Odi invasion, where several
civilians were killed by soldiers, is being replayed.
“Vandals have destroyed and on the run, innocent
Ijaw residents are now targets of military invasion.
This is not acceptable,” he said.


Nonye called in the military to be proactive and
properly target the vandals involved in destruction
of pipelines, instead of harassing civilians.
On his part, Hon. Kingsley Chinda (Rivers PDP)
lamented that the current administration, even
though a civilian one, seems bent on militarising
the Nigerian state.


“It is unconscionable to assault, harass and
gruesomely murder innocent citizens including
pregnant women under the guise of searching for
perceived criminals’’, Chinda said.


“This marks the difference between a civilian
democrat and military born again Democrat. I call
on the commander of the armed forces to
immediately withdraw the solders and fight crime in
line with the rule of law and conscionable
standards.”


www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2016/06/01/we-wont-back-down-militants-tell-fg/