Pipeline Bombing: At Last; FG, N'Delta Avengers Reach Truce

The President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government have succeeded in reaching a truce with the Niger Delta Avengers and other militants groups wrecking havoc in the nation's oil facilities, thereby crippling the economy, News Punch has reliably learnt 

The government has agreed to a 30-day ceasefire truce with the militants to give President Muhammadu Buhari time to come up with a comprehensive plan for the oil-rich region, ThisDay Newspaper reports this morning.

According to our source, the “30 days of quiet” was said to have been agreed upon last week by a federal government team led by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, and representatives of the militant groups, community leaders and the state governments.

Last week, Kachikwu had led a government delegation to different camps in Bayelsa and Delta States, including visiting the temporary site of the Maritime University at Okerenkoko, Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State, in a bid to reach out to representatives of the militant groups to get them to stop its attacks on oil and gas facilities.

The activities of the militants have halved Nigeria’s oil production to some 1.4 million barrels per day, impacted negatively on power supply in the country and the country’s oil earnings.

According to a source who opened up on the 30-day period of truce, Kachikwu was said to have reached out to the militants through back channels and pleaded for some time for the Buhari administration to come up with a comprehensive Niger Delta plan that would address most of their demands.

The militant groups, the source said, accepted Kachikwu’s plea, adding that since the agreement was reached there had been no attacks on oil and gas installations in the oil-rich region.

“You would have noticed that there have been no bombings of oil assets in recent days. This is the fall out of the 30 days of quiet reached with the minister and his team.

“This will give the president time to come up with a comprehensive plan for the Niger Delta,” the source said

He also revealed that some of the demands made by the militants were for greater control of the hydrocarbon resources in their communities, improved funding for the Amnesty Programme, clean-up of oil producing communities in the Niger Delta that had been devastated by oil exploration activities, and funding for the Maritime University, among others.

He added that the problem with respect to the Maritime University stemmed from the fact that Minister of Transportation, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, whose ministry superintends the university, did not provide for funding of the institution in the 2016 budget.

The absence of funding for the tertiary institution was compounded by Amaechi’s preference for funding the Maritime Academy of Nigeria in Oron, Akwa Ibom State, and his demand that a probe be carried out into why N13 billion was spent on acquiring the land alone for the university in Okerenkoko, which resulted in an open disagreement with Kachikwu on the issue.

The source said the N13 billion was allegedly paid to ex-Niger Delta militant and fugitive, Mr. Government Ekpemupolo, better known as Tompolo, and has formed part of the basis of his prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Prior to the agreement temporarily ending the attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta, the federal government had ordered the military to withdraw its troops, fighter jets and battleships that had been deployed in the region to flush out the militants.

ThisDay Live

WANTED Tompolo Writes Buhari, Names 'Cabals' Behind Pipeline Vandalism

Government Ekpemupolo popularly known as Tompolo, the leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, has boldly alleged that the Governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC, in Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylva along with some other party members in Delta State are the chief major sponsors of the attacks on oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta area.

The wanted fugitive, Tompolo in a statement addressed to the President, Muhammadu Buhari added that the recent attacks on the oil and gas facilities were only aimed at smearing his name.

He continued in the statement; “They are doing this in connivance with an EFCC lawyer, who is also a member of your party; he is at the forefront of prosecuting me because I refused to buy property from him.

“The crux of this letter is to let you know them, that they are dubious, mischievous, desperate, pretentious, manipulative and corrupt, therefore, do not share the same vision and mission with you, as well as do not believe in good governance. I will briefly tell you some of their antecedents in this letter.”

He further added; “I wish to inform you that it has come to my knowledge that the leader of your party and governorship candidate of the APC in Bayelsa State and a few young men from Warri South West LGA of Delta State, who joined the party from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) after the 2015 presidential election, are hell-bent on linking me to the renewed vandalism of oil facilities in the Niger Delta region whereas they are the ones carrying out the acts to smear my name.

“The leader of your party in Bayelsa State approached me shortly after my meeting with you in Abuja, that I should accompany him to meet you and plead for him to be appointed as Special Adviser (SA) and Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme Committee, which I refused to do because of his antecedents, as not being a reliable and trustworthy person.

“It was thereafter he forced his way into the governorship election of the state, which almost tore the state apart with violence, beginning with the party primaries in which he demonstrated a high level of desperation as was recounted by the chairman of the committee and governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

“Mr. President, as for the members of the party from my local government area, Warri South West, they have been involved in illegal bunkering and oil theft activities over the years, which I have been fighting against because of my love for the country. They know me as a no-nonsense person.

“There is this particular one from the same Gbaramatu Kingdom with me who has sworn to kill me because I refused to manipulate the ascension to our traditional stool in his favour when he was not even qualified for it. And so, he looks for any opportunity to deal with me,”

Herald NG