Niger Delta leaders back Avengers

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AvengersPalpable tension engulfed the Niger Delta, particularly oil-rich Delta State, on Saturday, after members of the dreaded Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) issued with a threat to resume hostility and pipeline vandalism. But most of the leaders in the region, who spoke with Sunday Tribune, blamed the Federal Government for the new development, apparently lending support for the militant group. The Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, who was in Warri briefly on Saturday for some projects inauguration at the Warri Naval Base, tactically avoided journalists and did not honour the ritual quarter guard ceremony and inspection.

Journalists, who were at the naval complex, were later told to rather look forward to Monday for an audience with the CNS in Sapele. But gunboats, as earlier noted by the Commander, Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS DELTA), Commodore Ibrahim Dewu, on Friday, were seen patrolling waterways, perhaps douse the tension created by the Avengers’ threat. The NDA threat, had changed the itinerary of the force and dictated the mood and tone of the visit by the CNS.

NDA had, in a statement signed by self-styled Major General Murdoch Agbinibo, and posted in the group’s website, www.nigerdeltaavengers.org, on Friday, denounced leaders of the Niger Delta region, including Tompolo and vowed to unleash ‘bloody’ attacks on personnel and oil and gas facilities of international oil companies in the region over the government’s refusal to implement the 16-point agenda of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF). The group opined that its initial fears that the government was insincere in the development of the region emerged after it had acceded to a ceasefire brokered by PANDEF at the twilight of 2016.

But barely 24 hours after the threats from the group, stakeholders from the region blamed the government for reneging on all its promises, the result of which is the oil revenue boom the country is enjoying. Spokesperson and Benemowei of Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State, Chief Godspower Gbenekama, during a press conference in Warri, on Saturday, said there was no guarantee that elders in the region would be able to pacify the militants any longer, especially given the treatment meted out to PANDEF members in Port Harcourt recently by security agencies. The spokesman of the Gbaramatu Traditional Council, who described the government as behaving abnormally, disclosed that only Tompolo from his hideout had been pleading with some suspected members of the NDA not to explode.

According to him, while it might not be in the interest of the region to witness another turbulence orchestrated by attacks on oil and gas facilities with its attendant environmental effects and military invasion, elders are currently pacifying the agitators to sheathe their sword while they await the FG’s change of attitude. “We admonish the avengers to sheathe their sword. Whatever is making them angry is justifiable. “Oil is the blood of the nation. Destroying oil and gas facilities will do us no good. “It’s one year and two days when PANDEF tendered the 16-point agenda to the president after pleading with the avengers. “So, why won’t they be angry? Perhaps, the threats from the avengers will wake up the Federal Government. “They should remember that the Avengers are not laptop criminals but real agitators. The Federal Government should take the threats seriously.

“The paramount ruler of Gbaramatu Kingdom has told us to plead with the militants who can deal a heavy blow on the Nigerian economy. The militants should give Buhari the benefit of the doubt,” he stressed. Chief Gbenekama, who decried the refusal of the government to disburse the initial N2 billion for the take off of the Nigerian Maritime University at Okerenkoko, warned the authority to stop foot-dragging on the implementation of the 16-point agenda or the boys might make good their threats. “On the maritime university, nothing seems to be happening. The N2 billion which is even small, has not been released,” he said. IYC President, (Worldwide), Mr. Pereotubo Oweilaemi, in a statement in Warri, opined that before the current threat, the government had had ample opportunities to bury the crisis but chose to play politics with it. “The threat to resume hostilities in the Niger Delta by Niger Delta Avengers to us is instigated by the lukewarm attitude of the government towards the region. “The Federal Government has all the opportunities to end this crisis permanently but it has chosen to play politics with it.

“Even if the IYC will not advise the militants to resume the oil war, the region is not happy with the manner the government is handling the issue. “Though we are not praying for armed confrontation at this critical period of our existence, it will be hard to blame the militants for threatening to resume hostilities,” he said. But northern leaders appeared divided over the development withy some of them calling for stiffer response from government.

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