Buratai: Army’ll use force against militants if

 

• Avengers blows up NNPC pipeline in A’Ibom

• Military closing in on militant leaders

  
  The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.- Gen Tukur Buratai, has said that the army would resort to force if dialogue with militants in the Niger Delta does not end the attacks on oil installations in the region. Burutai, who stated this in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital yesterday, said there was need for the militants to explore other means to make their demands known.
  The army chief said that the resolve of the militants to use violence to drive home their point, rather than peaceful means was unjustifiable. He said: “Government is still committed to dialogue and whereby this cannot go on, then there could be resort to other means.
  “The non-kinetic (force) means has always been the first source before government can recourse to the kinetic means. So, there is need for the Niger Delta Avengers to see reason and dialogue with government.” Burutai, who was represented by Maj.-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, the General Officer Commanding 82 Division, Enugu, at the inauguration of ultra-modern 2 Brigade headquarter complex and Olympic size swimming pool, said the military would provide security for the July 30 legislative re-run election in Rivers if need be.
  He informed that the army was experiencing shortage of accommodation, offices and other infrastructure needed for optimal performance by troops, but pointed out that the army had started renovating dilapidated structures and building new ones in the face of dwindling national resources.
  And in continuation of its sustained attacks on oil facilities, the Avengers have attacked the Seven Energy Gas Pipeline belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) at Ikot Atim, Oboetim in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.
  The attack, which was carried out at about 11.30p.m. on Sunday, has cut off oil supply from the pipeline. An eyewitness told New Telegraph that about four fierce looking young men came around the pipeline area and the next thing that was heard was a strong and heavy explosion.
  The militants, in a statement signed by the spokesperson of the group, Brig.-Gen Mudoch Agbinibo, claimed responsibility for the attack and urged the NNPC to check for their pipeline. “At 11:30p.m. on Sunday, the NDA blew up NNPC gas pipeline at Nsit-Ibom LGA, Akwa Ibom State. NNPC should check their pipeline if it is system Anomaly,” Agbinibo stated in a statement.
  When New Telegraph visited the area, fire fighters and other security agencies were at the site battling to quench the inferno. However, the Akwa Ibom State police command attributed the explosion to a technical fault from an ageing pipeline.
  The command Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Cordelia Nwawe, told New Telegraph that the fault was purely a technical problem against the ongoing rumour that the NDA was responsible for the blast. Nwawe said the engineers from NNPC were already at the restricted area working round the clock to rectify the problem.
  “Akwa Ibom is free from militants’ attack,” she said. But the NDA has not only accepted responsibility for the explosion that rocked Akwa Ibom State in the wee hours of yesterday, but have vowed to continue. According to them, blowing off a gas pipeline in Nsit Ibom was a way of announcing their presence in the state.
  The group, according to information gathered, are threatening that the next target in the state is ExxonMobil facility. The sound of the explosion, which took place at about 11:30p.m. on Sunday was followed by a huge flame that brightened the whole site.
  “The scare was so obvious that some persons were on the verge of leaving their houses for dear lives if not for the fact that the fire started reducing after about one hour,” an eyewitness told New Telegraph. Meanwhile, there are strong indications that more leaders of the Avengers and other agitating groups in the Niger Delta, will soon be rounded up as the military and security agencies step up intelligence and surveillance operations.
  Senior military and security sources, who spoke in confidence with New Telegraph yesterday, said strategies were being fine-turned, in an effort to end what was described as “economic sabotage” in the oil-rich region. It was gathered that while the Federal Government was adopting the dialogue option in seeking solution to the resurgence in militant activities, the military and relevant security agencies were maintaining vigilance in the area.
  One of the sources drew attention to the arrest of the “leader” of the Joint Revolutionary Congress (JRC) of the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force (JNDLF), one Jones Abiri, by the Department of State Services (DSS), as a product of improved intelligence and surveillance.
  “We would not fold our arms and allow the militants to continue with the destruction of oil facilities and other critical assets in the Niger Delta. “As a matter of fact, we are closing in on some of the leaders of those groups, through active intelligence and surveillance operation,” one of the sources said.
  Reminded that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government said it was in talks with some agitating groups, he said: “Yes, of course we respect our political authority, and we will support any move that will bring peace to our country.
  “We are still respecting our political masters; they have been negotiating with the so-called Avengers. We are maintaining a high-level of security in the area,” he stated. It will be recalled that the DSS, last Saturday, announced the arrest of Abiri, whom it said goes by the sobriquet “General Kill and Bury”.
  The Service had said in a statement by Mr. Tony Opuiyo that the JRC “leader” had confessed to the vandalism of Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) trunk line in Ogboinbiri, Southern Ijaw LGA and bombing of oil pipeline belonging to Shell Development Company (SPDC) at Brass creek on July 8 in Bayelsa State.
  He was also accused of demanding for the payment of N500 million and N250 million from managements of NAOC and SPDC respectively. The militant leader also threatened to launch missile attacks against selected targets in Abuja, including the Presidential Villa, Aso Rock.
  “Darikoro is also the mastermind of the recently circulated hoax of planned overthrow of President Muhammadu Buhari by the military,” the DSS stated.