Blow up Chevron oil facilities, others

From Emmanuel Ogoigbe, Warri

THE Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) yes­terday said it had carried out successful attacks on Chevron’s major oil well seven and eight close to Abiteye flow station in Delta State.

The group also reported through its Twitter handle on Saturday at 11:26p.m that its strike team had blown up two ma­jor crude oil trunkline belonging to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Com­pany (NPDC) close to Batan flow station in Delta.

Also at about 11:30pm of Saturday, the militants tweeted that it blew up the Ni­gerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Crude Oil Trunk Line to Warri Refinery at 9:15p.m on Friday.

“At 9:15p.m on Friday, the @NDAv­engers blow up Nigerian National Petro­leum Corporation (NNPC) Crude Oil Trunk Line to Warri Refinery.

“At 11:26pm on Saturday @NDAvengers blow up two NPDC major crude trunk lines close to Batan flowstation in Delta.

“At 1:15am on Sunday @NDAvengers blow up two major Chevron Oil Wells. WELL 7 and WELL 8 close to Abiteye flow station in Delta.

“All five operations were carried out by Niger Delta Avenger strike team. Well done soldiers,” the group said on its twitter account.

Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs, Mr.Garba Deen Muhammed, con­firmed the attacks to Daily Sun in a tele­phone interview.

‘‘Yes, it is true that our pipelines were attacked. It is an unfortunate and depress­ing development. We are doing all we can to stop the attacks. Our engineers are on site to access the extent of damage. We will not be discouraged, but continue to work harder to put a stop to this act of sabotage. Beyond the attacks, I cannot give further information as our team are still on site working to ascertain the impact on crude production figure,’’ he said

A security officer also confirmed the ex­plosions saying they happened simultane­ously, saying “preliminary investigations so far from our men in the field is that dy­namite was used to blow up the facilities just like in previous attacks.”

Since early this year, the Avengers have been bombing pipelines as they fight to win the region a bigger share of crude rev­enue and greater political autonomy.

The latest attacks occurred just as Mr. Ibrahim Idris, acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP) was visiting the area where he assured the people of Oporoza, head­quarters of Gbaramatu kingdom of ad­equate security.

Government Ekpemupolo, militant leader better known as Tompolo, is a high chief of the kingdom.