(By Paul Osuyi – ASABA)
Militant group Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate (NDGJM) has claimed responsibility for blowing up of the Afuesere-Ekiugbo delivery facility in Ughelli, Delta State, a facility operated by the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC).
The group in a statement by its spokesman Aldo Agbalaja said that the attack took place at about 11:30pm on September 18, explaining that the action was in furtherance of the group’s ‘Operation Crocodile Tears’ aimed at paralyzing the nation’s economy.
Agbalaja vowed that the attacks will be sustained until the Federal Government takes proper steps to address its demands, insisting that the ‘Operation Crocodile Smile’ of the Nigeria military was a scam put together to retire some recently embezzled military budget.
He said that if the military operation was “a serious endeavour, as the entire military system has sought to bamboozle Nigerians and the entire world to believe, the half-baked operation would have at least been reaping marginal results…”
The group then sent a chilling message to Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai. In their words:
“This is to you, General Buratai: Let your crocodile continue to smile. Your time for reckoning is at hand, probably by the time the smiley crocodile finally sinks, you will see its tears and blood.
“Under your nose, the very task of guarding oil assets (which we consider a waste of time, resources and a failure of priorities) will fail because you are both insincere and incompetent.
“The Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate is just starting. You are yet to see what we are about. By the time the alpha operations are initiated, you will need more than these fighter jets to keep your troops safe in any part of the Niger Delta.”
The group warned oil and gas companies in the region that they would soon reap the reward of placing their trust in “the guns and fighter jets of the Nigerian armed forces.
“You hide behind the guns of the oppressors to pillage our lands and our people, leaving us despoiled and our lands raped. You do all manners of things you will dare not imagine in other parts of the world where you operate.
“Here you have failed all basic corporate social responsibilities, leaving the people to languish in lack and ruins. Continue with your insolence against our people, but we will vow to you today that we shall uproot every asset and facility you think you have secured with soldiers and their guns.”
“Shorelines, First Hydrocarbon, NPDC, Seplat, Total E&P, Shell, Agip, Saipem, Mobil and co wait for us, we are just coming out for you.”