President Muhammadu Buhari has given a
fresh order to the military to crack down
on a new militant group, the Niger Delta
Avengers, which has been attacking oil
installations.
SUNDAY SOURCE gathered on Saturday that
the President gave the directive on Friday,
following the group’s attack on Chevron’s
platform in Warri, Delta State, on Thursday
and its blowing up of pipelines linking Warri
and Kaduna refineries on Friday.
Following the attack on the Okan offshore
production platform on Wednesday by the
militants, Chevron said it had lost about
105,000 barrels of oil production in three
days.
The oil major said the incident had
affected about 35,000 barrels per day of its
own net crude production, or about 15 per
cent of its output in the country.
“Approximately 35,000 bpd of Chevron’s
net crude oil production in Nigeria are
impacted,” AFP quoted a Chevron’s
spokeswoman, Isabel Ordonez, as saying in
a statement.
The General Manager, Policy, Government
and Public Affairs, Chevron Nigeria Limited,
Mr. Deji Haastrup, confirmed the figure.
He said, “This is a very difficult time for
the country because it needs the revenue
it can get from oil production. Incidents
such as this have the potential to impact
that. We do hope that it does not seriously
affect the country.”
Workers on the pipelines told one of our
correspondents that before the attack,
they had pumped 28,000 barrels from the
Escravos terminal on Thursday.
“Both Warri and Kaduna refineries also got
a delivery rate of 903,000 barrels just
before the attacks,” the workers who
spoke on condition of anonymity said.
The workers said following the attacks,
they counted about 10 military air patrols
over the pipelines on Saturday.
They also added that it had been difficult
for fire fighters to quench the fire from the
bombed pipelines.
“The fire is still on and it’s going to be
hard to stop it because it’s huge,” the
workers said on Saturday night.
It was learnt that following the attacks,
which has the potential of adversely
affecting the revenue of the country, the
President instructed the Nigerian Army, the
Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Air Force
to stop the activities of the new group.
A presidential aide, who spoke on condition
of anonymity, said, “The President gave
special instruction to the military,
especially to the Chief of Naval Staff, that
this ugly development of vandals in the
Niger Delta should end immediately.”
It was learnt that the President also
ordered the Chief of Naval Staff, Rear
Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, to ensure that
all waterways and platforms were
protected against further attacks by the
militants.
The Acting Director, Defence Information,
Brig. -Gen. Rabe Abubakar, in an interview
with one of our correspondents on
Saturday, confirmed that the military had
gotten the directive.
He said, “We have the order from the
President and we are monitoring the
activities of the new group. All efforts will
be made to bring out those behind it.
“The suspects who perpetrated the first
vandalism were apprehended and paraded
the day before yesterday (Thursday).
“These ones are not going to be different.
We are going out on our operation to stop
and apprehend them in accordance with
the presidential directive.”
Abubakar was not specific about what
measures would be taken to address the
current situation.
“We are not deterred; nobody is happy
about it but we are not deterred from
doing what we are doing. And more
proactive measures would be put in place.
“What they are doing is complete
economic sabotage; it is economic
terrorism,” he said.
Buhari had in April threatened that his
administration would descend heavily on
oil and gas pipelines vandals as well as
other saboteurs the same way the nation’s
Armed Forces were dealing with members
of the Boko Haram sect.
The President who spoke in Beijing during
a meeting he had with members of the
Nigerian community in China, warned
vandals and saboteurs blowing up oil and
gas installations in Nigeria to desist
immediately or face the same drastic
action being taken against Boko Haram by
the Armed Forces.
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