A group claiming to be Niger Delta Avengers, yesterday, bombed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation\u2019s pipeline pumping feedstock to the Nigeria Liquefied National Gas (NLNG) in Bonny, Rivers State.
\nThe Tide gathered that the pipeline attack occurred at a location in Eleme, Eleme Local Government Area, which also harbours the Port Harcourt Refinery Complex, in the state.
\nThe militants made this disclosure, in a release yesterday, on its phony Facebook page @NDAvengers, saying: \u201cby 3.00 am, yesterday, Strike Team 2, carried out a major strike, bombing NNPC pipeline at Eleme leading to NLNG. You won\u2019t stop us.\u201d
\nBefore the latest attack, the militant group had posted, at about 8.12 pm on its Facebook page: \u201cAnother major pipe about to go up in flames! Brass, LNG, Boom.\u201d
\nThe group further insisted that its mission was not to take lives.
\n\u201cThe only reason we don\u2019t want to take life is simple; we dare the Nigerian Army. For every life you take, we take two.
\n\u201cWe have our reason, we play cool. We are ready. We must cripple the economy,\u201d the group threatened.
\nBut in a swift turn of events, the Niger Delta Avengers, yesterday, denied ever bombing any oil facility in Rivers State.
\nIn a statement confirming its attacks on three Chevron Nigeria Limited\u2019s manifolds in Digbolo, near Dibi in Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State, the Avengers denied attack on the NNPC pipeline in Eleme, Rivers State, posted by on a Niger Delta Avengers Facebook account, describing it as \u2018fake\u2019.
\nThe militants said that the incident occurred at about 11.00 pm on Wednesday.
\nClaiming responsibility for the attack, the Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, said: \u201cBetween the hours of 10:50pm to 11:10 pm, our (Niger Delta Avengers) strike team blew up Chevron manifolds.\u201d
\nThe statement signed by its spokesperson, Brig. Gen Mudoch Agbinibo, and made available to The Tide via email, while wishing Muslims a happy Eid Mubarak celebration, said: \u201cthe manifolds are RMP 22, 23 and 24.\u201d
\nWarning the public that it was shutting down all its social media accounts, the group said, \u201cNiger Delta Avengers is not out to mislead the public, as a result, we are closing our entire social network accounts.
\n\u201cThis Facebook account\/page is an impostor page that was opened by fraudsters to deceive the general public,\u201d the statement emphasised.
\nSpeaking further, it said, \u201cwe are warning any group that wants to do anything to go about their activities without tagging us (Niger Delta Avengers). Instead, do your activities and claim responsibility.
\n\u201cNiger Delta Avengers is not out to mislead the public as a result we are closing all our social network accounts and will be using our websites to pass information to the general public,\u201d it added.
\nMeanwhile, the General Overseer of Victory Assembly Ministry (VAM), Bishop Jonathan Eze has cautioned Niger Delta militants to stop blowing up oil pipelines or face the wrath of God.
\nEze gave the warning in an interview with newsmen yesterday in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
\nThe Bishop was reacting to the incessant attacks on oil pipelines by the new militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA).
\nAccording to the General Overseer, who is also a UN Peace Ambassador, the avengers are incurring the wrath of God by their activities.
\n\u201cThe Avengers are not fighting a just cause because their activities are affecting and threatening the peace of the nation.
\n\u201cNigerian oil is a natural gift from God and nobody has the right to destroy it,\u2019\u2019 he said.
\nEze added that if the Avengers were aggrieved over any issue, they should address it in a civil manner rather than threaten the country.
\nHe said if the country must remain one, no group should threaten the peaceful existence of the nation in the name of militancy.
\nEze also blamed Niger Delta leaders for allowing the situation to \u201cget out of hand.
\n\u201cThe leaders in the Niger Delta region are to be blamed because they are the people that groomed the militants and they should call them to order.
\n\u201cHow can there be governors, senators, traditional rulers and other top government officials from the region; and yet they cannot caution their children from destroying government assets,\u2019\u2019 he said.
\nAccording to him, spiritual leaders will no longer sit back and watch militants destroy the country.
\n\u201cIf the militants do not stop this madness, we will fight them spiritually and subdue them,\u201d he said.
\nThe clergyman, however, encouraged the Federal Government to take a critical look into the issue and handle it with diplomacy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Susan Serekara-Nwikhana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A group claiming to be Niger Delta Avengers, yesterday, bombed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation\u2019s pipeline pumping feedstock to the Nigeria Liquefied National Gas (NLNG) in Bonny, Rivers State. The Tide gathered that the pipeline attack occurred at a location in Eleme, Eleme Local Government Area, which also harbours the Port Harcourt Refinery Complex, in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131942,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-front-pix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=131938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/131942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=131938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=131938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=131938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}