Avengers blow up 3 Chevron's manifolds

A few hours after Presi­dent Muhammadu Bu­hari extended an olive branch to Niger Delta mili­tants, they struck on Wednes­day night in Warri North Lo­cal Government Area in Delta State.

In the attack, the militants, who are members of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), blew up three Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) manifolds in Digbolo.

The militants had on Wednesday destroyed the Ni­gerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) pipeline which connects the Nigeria Liq­uefied Natural Gas (NLNG) at Eleme in Port Harcourt, Riv­ers State.

The latest attack occurred at about 11.00 pm on Wednesday.

The NDA, which claimed responsibility for the attack, said: “Between the hours of 10:50pm to 11:10 pm, our (Ni­ger Delta Avengers) Strike Team blew up Chevron man­ifolds.”

In a statement signed by NDA’s Spokesperson, Brig-Gen Mudoch Agbinibo, who wished Muslims a happy Eid Mubarak celebration, said: “The mani­folds are RMP 22, 23 and 24.”

It, however, denied attack­ing the NNPC pipeline in El­eme.

Agbinibo said that the post on a Niger Delta Avengers Face­book account did not emanate from the group.

He said because of the de­velopment, the NDA is shut­ting down all its social media accounts.

Agbinibo said: “The Niger Delta Avengers is not out to mislead the public, as a result, we are closing our entire social network accounts. This Face­book Account/page is an im­postor page that was opened by fraudster to deceive the gener­al public.

“We warn any group that wants to do anything to go about their activities without tagging us (Niger Delta Aveng­ers), he said.

Meanwhile, Shell has re­sumed the export of Bonny Light crude from the Bonny Terminal. The resumption of operations at the terminal came two months after the oil giant declared a force majeure.

In a statement, it said said that the lifting of the force majeure was due to the com­mencement of production in the terminal.

It said that the bounce back of the terminal was due to the repairs of the Nembe Creek Trunk Line, adding that the lifting of the force majeure be­came effective from 09:00 am

Nigerian time (0800 GMT) on Thursday.

The force majeure on Bon­ny Light exports was declared by company on May 11, 2015 as result of the leak and subse­quent closure of the trunk line for repairs.