The Niger Delta Avengers said on Friday that it had launched two simultaneous operations to restart its disruption of Nigeria’s oil and gas production this year.

In a statement signed by its spokesman, Mudoch Agbinibo, and posted on its website, the group expressed its frustration with President Muhammadu Buhari’s “deaf” approach towards the ongoing dialogue with leaders of the region.

“It has been evidently clear that the Nigerian state is not ready for any form of dialogue and negotiation,” the Avengers said while accusing the Buhari administration of turning “deaf ears” to the plight of the Niger Delta.

Consequently, the Avengers said it had activated its combatants and bases for a wholesale obstruction of Nigeria’s oil production in 2017.

“On this note, we are declaring ‘Operations Walls of Jericho and Hurricane Joshua’ simultaneously to reclaim our motherland,” Mr. Agbinibo said. “All fighters and commands are hereby placed on high readiness in your webs of operations to hit and knock the enemy very hard.”

The group said it would ensure that Nigeria’s 2017 national budget is not funded with the “crude oil production output from the Niger Delta” but “on the newly found oil deposits in the North and the new pipelines construction from the Niger Republic,” in reference to Mr. Buhari’s policies of prospecting crude oil in the North East and constructing cross-border pipelines with the Republic of Niger.

The Niger Delta Avengers gained worldwide notoriety when its fighters launched a string of devastating attacks on oil and gas installations across the oil-rich region last year, forcing major oil companies —including Shell, Agip and Chevron— to cease operations and withdraw their staff.

Between mid-January and mid-November 2016, the Avengers claimed responsibility for some 50 attacks on oil installations, hitting mostly in Delta State with Bayelsa coming in a distant second.

(Source: PREMIUM TIMES)