IF the militants who sabotaged crude and gas pipelines in Delta State
thought that by their action, they would succeed in brow-beating the
Federal Government into bargaining amnesty with them and awarding them
contracts for protection of pipelines in the region, then they seriously
misfired.
According to a militant leader, “General” Levi (not
real name), whose group claimed responsibility for the attacks that led
to the shutdown of the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries, they would
not drop their arms until the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe
Kachikwu, “meets and negotiates” with them.
Apparently convinced
that the damage in the face of dwindling oil price and crash of the
Naira might force government to parley with the group, “General” Levi
asserted, “We are ready to commence discussion and denounce association
with this present situation. Henceforth, we are ready to block any
channel for anyone not to go through to bomb oil pipelines.”
Bombshell
However,
the reaction from President Muhammadu Buhari, a week after the
explosions that destroyed the Escravos-Warri-Lagos-Abuja gas pipelines
and other oil facilities in Warri South-west and Warri north local
government areas of Delta State from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab
Emirates, UAE, jolted the militants.
Rather than plead for their
understanding with his government, Buhari, during a meeting with the
Nigerian community in UAE, vowed to deal with oil thieves, abductors and
vandals of oil and gas pipelines.
It was not a story time for
the President, who is ruing the attack that is costing the economy a
daily loss of N470 million besides the closure of the refineries.
Recalling
how the armed forces had dealt “deadly blows” on Boko Haram insurgents
to re-launch the country on safety path, he declared, “The oil thieves
and abductors are a less problematic target. We will re-organize and
deal with them.”
Confusion
Buhari’s tough mien actually
staggered the militants, who held a secret meeting shortly after the
January 14-16 attacks to review their exploit. Unknown to them, they had
just given Buhari, who, all along, had been trying to be cautious about
his actions/inactions on the unpredictable Niger Delta cannon fodder to
unleash his “war” plan. A source said the reaction of the Federal
Government threw the militants into disarray, as what they planned was
not what they got.
A source said they might likely go back to the
drawing board to plot their next move. But the dust their cunning
strikes left is rumbling everywhere in the oil rich region.
Huge loss
A
source told Sunday Vanguard, “Because of the strategic importance of
Niger Delta to the nation, the Federal Government did not want to do
anything that will provoke tension in the region and give people the
excuse to blow up oil pipelines. But they have caused it themselves; so
they should take anything that comes out of it.”
“You can see
that Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries have been shut down because of
crude supply challenges arising from recent attacks on vital crude oil
pipelines. The NNPC shut the plants simultaneously penultimate Sunday
after the Bonny –Okirika crude supply line to the Port Harcourt refinery
and the Escravos-Warri crude supply line to the Kaduna refinery
suffered breaches.”
The NNPC, in a statement by its Group General
Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ohi Alegbe, said the
corporation shut the plants, simultaneously, on Sunday, after the
Bonny-Okrika crude supply line to the Port Harcourt refinery, and the
Escravos-Warri crude supply line to the Kaduna refinery suffered
breaches.
It stated that before the closure, the Port Harcourt
refinery was recording a daily petrol yield of over 4.1 million litres,
while the Kaduna refinery was posting a daily petrol production of about
1.3 million litres.
According to the Federal Ministry of Power,
Works and Housing, the vandalism of the gas pipelines would affect
negatively the Olorunsogo National Integrated Power Project plant, which
has the capacity to supply 600 megawatts of electricity, and other
power plants across the country.
The Special Adviser on Media to
the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Hakeem Bello, disclosed in
a statement on Wednesday, that although security agencies had
intensified the search for those behind the attack on the pipeline,
their action would slow down the country’s power supply system.
Bello
stated, “The sabotaged gas pipeline, which contributes to the
Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System, has led to a loss of 160mmsfcd of gas
daily. At a cost of $2.50 per thousand scf, this loss means about
$400,000 loss to the country on a daily basis (N78.8m) in gas volume.”
No more tea party – Defense Minister
The
Minister of Defense, Brigadier-General Monsur Mohammed-Dan-Ali (retd.),
who stopped over in Warri, on Tuesday, for an on-the-spot assessment of
the blown-up pipelines, gave a clear indication that the Federal
Government was not going to huddle with criminals.
Even as
residents of the various Delta State riverside communities lived in fear
following the heavy deployment by the military, he directed the JTF
Commander, Major General Alani Okunola, and his men to fish out the
bombers.
“I came here to intensify assistance to the armed forces
and provide them with the equipment that will help them to bring down
these criminals. This was an Improvised Explosive Device (IED)
explosion”, the Minister stated.
“I believe it was well arranged
and well planned. You can see the magnitude of the explosion. I believe
this will be taken care of by members of our armed forces. We have
intensified patrol. We are still looking for them and the Joint Task
Force (JTF) Commander has assured me that they will get to the root of
it.”
In his entourage were the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral
Ite Ikwe Ibas; the Flag Officer Commanding, Central Naval Command, Rear
Admiral Apochi Suleiman, the JTF Commander, Major General Okunmola,
Commander, 2 Battalion, Lt. Col Omoke Igwe Patrick, and Commander,
Nigeria Navy Ship, NNS Delta, Commodore Raimi Mohammed.
Terrorism, no more pipeline vandalism —CNS
Speaking
on Wednesday in Abuja and apparently re-echoing Buhari’s new “war”
plan, the Chief of Naval Staff, Ibas, said, henceforth, the Nigerian
Navy would treat such infraction as terrorist attack, rather than mere
pipeline vandalism.
Describing the bomb blasts as unfortunate,
the CNS, who delivered a lecture to Course 24 participants at the
National Defence College, entitled, ‘Nigerian Navy: Challenges and
Future Perspectives,’ noted that the Navy was not taking the sabotage
nonchalantly because the act was capable of undermining the Navy’s
recent push in sanitizing the nation’s maritime sector.
His
words, “The incident that just happened recently is rather unfortunate
and of course that cannot be taken lightly by any serious nation and of
course the Nigerian Navy is not going to take it lightly as well.
“We
have made it clear that it goes beyond just mere vandalism for the
purpose of making any gains; this is absolute sabotage, something that
can even be termed terrorism.
“If the guys were doing that to
derive benefit from the destruction then one will say it is vandalism,
but that is not the case”.
New order, fresh fears
A
military source told Sunday Vanguard, at the weekend. “President Buhari
has directed the Minister of Defense on what to do. When he said the
militants who blew up the pipelines were less problematic than Boko
Haram, the President has intelligence information at his disposal and, I
tell you, it is just to re-organize as he said, they will be taken care
of.”
“Some persons have been compromised before now because they
know the militants and they parley with them. I am not supposed to tell
you the changes that will be made, but you will see them with your eyes
soon.”
Meanwhile, investigations showed that the JTF had been
given an unambiguous order to stop at nothing to fish out the
perpetrators of the attacks on the crude and gas pipelines in the Delta
State and the Federal Government was prepared to provide more logistics.
The threat by the JTF Commander that the task force would hold
community leaders responsible for any future attacks in their areas had
also raised the heartbeat of the people. Indeed, the fear of what it
portends is what has made many riverside dwellers to flee their
communities in the last one week.
Uncertainty
Ijaw
leaders and groups, who suspect that some persons were trying to get at
a former militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, with
the current development, have urged the military to be cautious so as
not to exacerbate the already complicated state of affairs. However,
normalcy has returned after the three-day bombings, especially when the
task force took commanding control of some major entry and exit routes
in the creeks of Warri, last Sunday, but the next line of action is like
two peas in a pod.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/01/militants-failed-plot-to-arm-twist-buhari/
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