Militants Blow up Another Oil Facility in Niger Delta

Militants Blow up Another Oil Facility in Niger Delta

Amid ceasefire talks and the “Operation Crocodile Smile” in the Niger Delta region, a new militant group, the Urhobo-based Niger Delta Greenland Justice Movement (NDGJM), Tuesday, blew up the Ogor-Oteri major delivery line, operated by the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company and Shorelines Petroleum in the state.

In a statement by its leader, “Gen” Aldo Agbalaja, the group claimed responsibility for the attacks supposedly carried out by its Uproot Team B, adding that they would launch “Operation Crocodile Tears” in response to the military’s “Operation Crocodile Smile”, Vanguard reports.

“Recent developments around our region, especially as it concerns the issue of justice and our inalienable right to protect our heritage, have proven us right all along,” the statement read.

“Now it has become clearer who is serious about getting justice for our people and who has been using the name of the region and the destinies of all our peoples to feather their nests, raising dusts merely to harass the Nigerian state and the oil multinationals into parting with money.

They expressed doubt over the pan-Niger Delta initiative that’s set to engage the Federal Government in peace talks, adding: “When lines are blurred, justice is most likely to be miscarried. If there shall be a negotiation, it must be seen and indeed, must be in actual sense, be representing all the individual nations of the region equally.

“That said, the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate will no longer sit quietly watching the endless harassment of our people in various parts of the region by the Nigerian military.

“They are now killing our people on the basis of mere suspicion, this cannot continue.

“With the launch of their ‘Operation Crocodile Smile’, the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate is also serving a notice on the commencement of our ‘Operation Crocodile Tears.’ It shall from now on be an eye for an eye; for every military atrocity carried out in the creeks and hinterland of the Niger Delta, the Nigerian armed forces will have the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate to contend with.”

The group warned surrounding communities to evacuate “because what is coming to those facilities are beyond what anybody has seen before,” adding that the world should “Hold the Nigerian President responsible for the genocide that his armed forces is about to unleash on our people.”