Bloody clashes likely between soldiers, Niger Delta militants

A clash is likely between the Nigerian military and Niger Delta militants who have returned to their old ways of bombing oil facilities following the deployment of soldiers to oil pipelines nationwide.

Urhobo Militants

SUNDAY PUNCH gathered on Saturday that the operation to take over the pipelines from the militants and vandals was being jointly undertaken by the Army, the Air Force and the Navy, as well as other security agencies.

It was learnt that the military would deploy all equipment at its disposal, including aircraft, drones and some special pipeline monitoring facilities to protect oil installations nationwide.

Bombings of oil pipelines resumed in the Niger Delta, particularly Delta State, following a court in order that a militant leader in the area, Government Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo, be arrested for failing to appear in court over a N34bn fraud allegation.

Tompolo had, in a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari last week, denied the allegation, urging security agencies to focus their search for pipeline vandals on the leaders of the All Progressives Congress in Bayelsa and Delta states.

Before the bombing of oil installations in the Niger Delta, vandals had been destroying pipelines at Arepo, Ogun State and some parts of Lagos State.

Buhari, while speaking at Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, on Tuesday, had vowed to deal with the resurgence of oil theft, vandalism of pipelines and insecurity in the Niger Delta.

Although the security source, who spoke to SUNDAY PUNCH on condition of anonymity, did not disclose the number of military personnel that were being deployed nationwide, he said the security agents had already taken over the protection of oil pipelines.

The Director of Defence Information, Brig-Gen. Rabe Abubakar, in an interview with one of our correspondents, confirmed that the military had taken over protection of oil pipelines nationwide.

He said, “They have taken over protection all over Nigeria. It is just modalities that need to be concluded but with this kind of thing, I believe we have enough deployment to oversee all the pipelines in the nation and we will continue to do that.”

“One person or some groups — criminal groups — cannot hold this nation to ransom. Nobody can hold this nation to ransom and will be living, no!

“All security agencies are in top gear to ensure that these people, whoever is involved, will be brought to book and whoever thinks that we cannot do it should try to continue doing it and let’s see who will pay the price at the end of the day.”

When asked the type of equipment that would be used by the military, he said the military would deploy high-tech modern security networks to protect the pipelines from attacks by vandals and saboteurs.

Abubakar restated the determination of the military and other security agencies to track down those behind the last attack on the pipelines in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State, last week.

The Defence spokesman had said the government launched Operation AWATSE to ensure the protection of the pipelines.

Investigations revealed that troops of the task force had been deployed to various communities in the Niger Delta in search of suspected vandals.

Confirming the deployment, the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta, also known as Operation Pulo Shield, said on Saturday that its troops had taken over the waterways, creeks and pipelines in the oil-rich region.

The Coordinator, Joint Media Campaign Centre of Operation Pulo Shield, Col. Ado Isa, disclosed this while speaking with SUNDAY PUNCH in a telephone interview.

Isa said the troops had intensified patrol on the waterways and the creeks with a view to protecting further attack on the nation’s oil facilities.

He explained that athough the troops had been working round the clock in line with its mandate to secure the Niger Delta region, they had redoubled their efforts following the recent bombing of oil installations in a part of the region.

According to him, the Commander of Operation Pulo Shield, Maj.-Gen. Alani Okunlola, has directed sector commanders under him to ensure that those behind the recent attack on oil installations were brought to book

He said, “The Operation Pulo Shield is pursuing its mandate, one of which is securing the nation’s oil installations and fighting criminality with renewed vigour.

“It is not only manning or patrolling the waterways, we have dominated the entire creeks and the water channels of the Niger Delta and not only within the areas that the explosions occurred.

“You can see that all their (militants) boasting that they are going to continue with their bombings will not be possible again because the Operation Pulo Shield, in conjunction with other security agencies within the Niger Delta region, has intensified and heightened patrol.”

Isa pointed out that with the domination of the creeks, waterways and pipelines dominated by the troops, there would be no space for the militants to operate again.

“As I speak now, all the waterways, pipelines, creeks and channels have been dominated by men of the Operation Pulo Shield, in conjunction with other security agents,” he added.

Bloody clashes likely between soldiers, Niger Delta militants

Breaking: Militants continue bombing in Delta

MILITANTS  continued bombing of oil installations, last night, in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State.

The details were still sketchy this morning‎, but it was learned that they blew up the Abiteye flow station and Sagara to Chevron pipelines.

“Some of are already trapped in our communities because of the bombings, the target for now may be Chevron facilities,” a worried riverside dweller told Vanguard.

More details soon.

Breaking: Militants continue bombing in Delta

Niger Delta militants threaten chaos if Buhari refuses to develop region

•Group wants security agencies cautioned over Tompolo

By Emma Amaize & Akpokona Omafuaire

FORMER Militants in the Niger Delta under the Third Phase Group has called on the Federal Government to aggressively pursue development of the Niger Delta to forestall another crisis in the region. The former militants, who flayed the actions of former Presidential Adviser to the President  on the Amnesty Programme, Kingsley Kuku, said that the call is timely as such failure in the past led to increase in militancy and unrest, which caused drastic drop in national earning.

Niger Delta Militant

They warned the current handlers to be mindful of what plagued the Kuku regime, claiming that the amnesty programme was a huge failure under its immediate past coordinator, Kuku.

The Ex-militants call was contained in a joint statement by National Chairman, Diepreye Ogbetebe; Vice Chairman, John Government; Secretary, Etarighobe Thompson and Delta State Chairman, Prince Ogor.

They spoke as another Niger Delta group, Egbema Voice in Warri North Local Government Area, Delta State, yesterday, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to call security agencies  employing state apparatus to terrorize and harm the reputation of ex-militant leader, Chief Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, to order.

The ex-militants said:  “The Programme under Kuku specifically failed as a result of mismanagement of funds allocated for the programme by the Federal Government. Five groups under the third phase were marginalized and there were malicious diversion and deprivation of genuine and real persons that surrendered their arms and ammunition for which the slots were legitimately approved for.”

They also listed “incompetent, corrupt and unfair representation of Phase III by the so called self-imposed national leaders, deprivation/non-documentation of some of the ex-militants during the documentation exercise handled by inter-agency task forces in the various JTF barracks” as factors that hallmarked the past regime.

The group said that proper verification of arms and ammunition surrendered by various groups and war lords was not done before the allocation and disbursement of the 3642 slots to commence the Phase III of the programme.

“Despite the infinitesimal amount of the 3642 slots approved for Phase III, most of the camps that surrendered less than 20 guns were given up to 50 slots while some of the camps that surrendered above 50 guns were given three slots due to malicious diversion of slots,’’ they said.

Urging the current coordinator of the amnesty programme to look into the issues of ex-militant leaders and their foot followers in the Niger Delta region who were not documented, they said that such neglect was what led to frequent vandalization of pipelines and crude oil facilities in the region by various action groups in Ijaw and the rising Urhobo Gbagbako group.

They also called for immediate payment of all outstanding allowances to its leaders as well as train and engage them with gainful employments to reform and create a conducive environment for the  nation.

Call security agencies to order

Meantime, the  Egbema Voice, in a statement by Chief Wilfred Elebiri and two others, said: “In as much as we are not opposed to the anti-corruption crusade of this government, we sincerely and will wholeheartedly condemn and fight any person or group of persons that will use the state paraphernalia to intimidate and humiliate our High Chief or any Niger Deltan.”

It continued: “We are making the call because the man, High Chief Ekpemupolo has not done anything that warrants such barbaric action. He is a leader in the Niger Delta with strong followership and he is committed to the freedom, justice, fairness and equal rights. Therefore, we cannot sit and watch while these group of people, all in the name of political vengeance, bring the name of our brother and the people of Niger Delta to disrepute.”

It said the actions of the agents/agencies of the administration, so far, were merely to discredit any person or persons perceived to be on the other side of the divide, adding, “these actions are deliberately targeted at the peace-loving people of Niger Delta whose resources these oligarchy has been feeding on all along.”

 

Niger Delta militants threaten chaos if Buhari refuses to develop region

Muslim body calls for ‘killing, crucifixion’ of IS militants

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Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam’s most prestigious centre of learning, expressed outrage at the Islamic State group for burning to death a captive Jordanian pilot, saying its militants deserve to be killed or crucified.

After a video was released showing the caged fighter pilot, Maaz al-Kassasbeh, dying engulfed in flames, the Cairo-based authority’s head, Ahmed al-Tayib, expressed his “strong dismay at this cowardly act”.

This “requires the punishment mentioned in the Koran for these corrupt oppressors who fight against God and his prophet: killing, crucifixion or chopping of the limbs.”

“Islam forbids killing of the innocent human soul… It forbids mutilating the human soul by burning or in any other way even during wars against an enemy that attacks you,” Tayib added in a statement.

IS itself has implemented such punishments against its own members for robbery at checkpoints or stealing funds from religious endowments in territories controlled by the group in Iraq and Syria.

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Muslim body calls for ‘killing, crucifixion’ of IS militants

Tompolo denies masterminding 14 journalists abduction

Ex-militant leader, Chief Government Ekpemupolo aka Tompolo, has described the allegation that he masterminded the abduction of 14 journalists in the creeks of Gbaramatu Kingdom, Delta State, as untrue and misleading.

Abucted journalists in Niger Delta

Tompolo, in a statement, said: “It has become necessary to make this clarification in the face of the deliberate distortion of facts by some mischief makers bent on denigrating my person and questioning my integrity before the larger society.

“More so, I am persuaded by the fact of my experience as a crusader for equity, fairness and justice the world over including the oppressed people of Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South-West Local Government Area, who have always found brotherliness and companionship in members of the fourth estate of the realm.

“In the case of the Ijaw of the Niger Delta which I have championed over the years, journalists have been worthy partners even as their contributions have served as veritable means to ventilate our views, opinions and positions as a people who have had cause to draw global attention to our plight.

“However, in the matter of the hyped  ‘abduction’  of journalists in Oporoza last week, it is pertinent to state that they were victims of an orchestrated and well-rehearsed saga by their Itsekiri clients, who lured them into a trap. Suffice it to say that unknown to the journalists (some of whom are my friends) and before their arrival in Warri, their Itsekiri hosts had concluded plans to video-capture some Ijaw settlements, especially Ikpokpo community, to show to the world as Itsekiri lands in their desperate attempt to distort historical facts, especially as the hosting/siting of the Export Processing Zone, EPZ, project poses some challenges.

“It should be noted that the Gbaramatu people have been agitating for inclusion in the EPZ project since 2012, as of right, that the part of the land earmarked for the project starting from Ikpokpo community belongs to them.

“It was on the strength of the above that in November 2013, the Gbaramatu people were invited alongside other stakeholders, to the unveiling meeting of the project at Government House Annex Warri by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and the state government. At the said meeting, the Gbaramatu people, out of curiosity, inquired why they have not been recognised as stakeholders by way of acquisition of land from them. But to their surprise, the governor shut them out of the project and merely identified them as  ‘impacted community.’”

 

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Tompolo denies masterminding 14 journalists abduction

Amaechi’s Sudden Release of Cultists, Militants from Detention, Political – PDP Insists

 

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Rivers State Chapter says emerging facts have confirmed its earlier position that recent actions taken by the Rivers State Governor, through the State Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP), in dropping charges against 55 militants and several cultists under prosecution and releasing them from detention in the State is political, ill-conceived and with the motive of setting up a Militancy Strike Force in preparation for the forthcoming general elections in the State.

PDP supports its claims with reference to the sudden advice of the DPP on charges of Secret Cult Activities, participation in Secret Cult Activities, Unlawful Assembly, and unlawful Assembly to disturb public peace, in charge No PMC/1505^c/2013, brought against youths who were found conveyed in different buses with bottles, stones and other dangerous weapons on July 10, 2013.

The PDP wonders why the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi and the All Progressives Congress, APC, through the DPP, would advice the Police authorities and the court to discontinue the matter, half way.

The PDP also recalled that 55 militants undergoing trial in a Port Harcourt High Court, presided over by Hon Justice Boma Diepiri, in connection with militancy six years ago, were last week released following the withdrawal of charges against them by the Director of Public Prosecution on the orders of Governor Rotimi Amaechi.

The spate at which the Governor Rotimi Amaechi led government opts out of cases, particularly those related to militancy and cultism in recent times gives one great concern. As questions trailing the release half way into the trial of the 55 militants, were yet to be answered, the Governor, through the DPP under his authority continued the recent trend by opting out of the trial and prosecution of some suspected cultists standing trial in various courts in the State.

It is therefore shocking, that cases as serious as militancy and attacks on elected government officials, like in the case of members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, are now taken as political, trivial and non serious issues that can be waved off without consideration of the wounds and damaging effects on the victims and the society at large.

The Party believes that if the Governor meant well for the State he should take such issues seriously and allow the court to do its own work without interference or putting hurdles in its processes of achieving justice and fair play.

PDP also reiterates is stance that the Governor’s action portends great danger for the coming elections, as most of those released are made to be ready tools for the Governor and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the coming elections.

The Peoples Democratic Party also reveals that militants and cultists released are now enlisted and placed on monthly allowances and salaries on the SURE-P, a federal government funded programme executed in the various States, which funds are misdirected by the Rivers State government and the APC. Contracts have also been awarded to militants and thugs to retain their loyalty, support and services for coming elections.

It is regrettable that Governor Amaechi and the APC will be enlisting the services of militants and cultists ahead of elections, underscoring the fact that they have lost out of the electorate favour, having failed to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people of Rivers State.

The PDP assures that no amount of recruitment of militants and cultists will make APC win elections in Rivers State.

Amaechi’s Sudden Release of Cultists, Militants from Detention, Political – PDP Insists