ACN Condemns Attack On Agip Facility

The Bayelsa State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has condemned the attack on Nigerian Agip Oil Company facility in the state,  describing it as inimical to the development of the state.

The acting Chairman of the party in the state, Mr Ebikibina Miriki, called on the Federal Government to launch full scale investigations into the incident with a view to identifying the perpetrators and save the amnesty programme from truncation.

Earlier, unidentified gunmen had attacked and destroyed two pipelines belonging to the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) in the deep swamp of Brass in Bayelsa.

A member of staff of the company who pleaded anonymity said on Friday in Yenagoa that the second blast at the Osiama field and the attack on NAOC facility in the area were noticed by the company workers on routine check on Friday morning.

Sources in the area confirmed that NAOC pipelines from the Osiama oil field to Brass were blown with explosives suspected to be dynamites.

ENI group of company, however, confirmed the incident.

The company said “the production affected by the blast is 4,000 bpd, of which 800 bpd is ENI’s equity”.

A faction of the Movement for the Survival of the Niger Delta (MEND) has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Meanwhile, men of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) have launched a man-hunt for the gunmen who attacked the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) facility in Southern Ijaw Council of Bayelsa.

Security sources said on Saturday in Yenagoa that armed soldiers had been deployed to the area to intensify patrol of the troubled creek with a view to tracking the attackers of the facility.

Lt.-Col. Timothy Antigha, the spokesman of the JTF, who confirmed the incident, said that security had been reinforced in the area with a view to apprehending the perpetrators.

“Our people have intensified patrol of the area and, of course, efforts are on to fish out the culprits,” he said.

Antigha said the Commander of the JTF in Niger Delta, Maj.-Gen. Charles Omoregie, had implored the communities and residents to be more observant of what was happening around them.

He appealed to the indigenes of the communities as well as stakeholders to jealously guard government facilities and report all suspicious movements to the JTF and other security agencies.

Antigha said effective policing of the area required the collaboration of the natives since they were more familiar with the terrain.