Avengers destroy NNPC, Chevron facilities in 3-day bombing

Members of the Ni­ger Delta Aveng­ers (NDA) have re­sumed the destruction of the country’s oil facilities.

Between Friday and Sunday, the militants struck thrice in Batan and Abiteye communities, Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State, where they destroyed facilities and oil wells belonging to the Nigerian National Petrole­um Corporation (NNPC), Chevron Nigeria Limited and the Nigerian Petroleum Development Corporation (NPDC).

  THE AUTHORITY learnt that the affected facilities have been shut down by the operating companies while the environment is under massive oil spillage.

Sources said that two critical oil wells-7 and 8 - lo­cated near Abiteye Flow Sta­tion and operated by Chev­ron, were bombed by the militants.

Local sources in Batan said five NNPC and NPDC pipelines were attacked by the militants. 

The Chairman of Batan Community, Mr. Ogugu Don Dickson, confirmed the at­tacks when contacted by The THE AUTHORITY.

He said that some surveil­lance youths in the communi­ty who attempted to trace the source of the loud bang from the explosion were shot at by the attackers.

A top security officer also confirmed the bombing of the facilities.

The NDA also confirmed the attacks in a series of twits it posted on its Twitter han­dle.

The twits read: “At 9:15pm on Friday, the @NDAvengers blew up Nigerian Nation­al Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) crude oil trunk line to Warri Refinery.

“At 11:26pm on Saturday @NDAvengers blew up two NPDC major crude trunk lines close to Batan Flow Sta­tion in Delta State.

“At 1:15am on Sunday @NDAvengers blew up two ma­jor Chevron oil wells. Well 7 and Well 8 close to Abiteye Flow Station in Delta State. All five operations were carried out by @Ndavengers strike team. Well done soldiers.”

The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) however blamed the fresh attacks on Federal Gov­ernment’s inability to address the issues that gave birth to the renewed militancy in the region.

A statement issued by the group’s spokesman, Eric Omare, described as unfor­tunate and worrisome that there is a resumption of fresh attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta region by the NDA.

Omare said: “The visit of the Minister of State for Pe­troleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, to the creeks some weeks ago generated so much goodwill and commendation from the people of the region and the IYC had expected the Feder­al Government to take advan­tage of that goodwill to en­gage stakeholders on how to find short and long-term so­lutions to the problem.”

“However, unfortunate­ly, this was not done as the Federal Government has not taken any practical step to­wards resolving the issues since President Buhari re­turned from his medical trip abroad. We call for urgent re­sponse from government on solutions to the problem.

“IYC also calls on the Ni­ger Delta Avengers to halt fur­ther attacks on facilities, con­sidering the negative effects of the attacks on the Niger Delta environment and give room for constructive dialogue,” he said.