Niger delta militants on monday blew up an oil pipeline
belonging to the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in Batan community
in Warri South West Local Government area of Delta State.
Security
sources said that the incident occurred at SPDC Camp Five at about 1 a.m. with
a huge fire enveloping the site of the attack.
“Suspected
militants attacked the SPDC pipeline in Batan at about 1 a.m. with dynamites.
As I am speaking, the place is engulfed with fire but efforts are being made to
put it off,” one security source said.
Another
community source confirmed the incident, stating that they heard a huge
explosion around midnight only to discover it was a pipeline belonging to Shell
that had been blasted.
He
said: “We heard a huge explosion when we were sleeping. We rushed out and found
that the Shell pipeline was on fire. We are not sure whether it was militants
that caused it or not.”
The
Niger Delta Advengers (NDA), the militant group that has claimed responsibility
for the destruction of oil facilities in the Niger Delta, was yet to claim
responsibility at the time of filing this report.
Instead,
the group disclaimed reports of a meeting between itself and the Minister of
Youths and Sports, Solomon Dalung, at Oporoza in Warri South West Local
Government Area of Delta State.
Reacting to the minister’s claim that he met with the Avengers at the weekend, the militant group said he must have been duped by fraudsters since it did not send any representatives to “meet with a common minister”.
“The
Minister of Youths and Sports, Solomon Dalung narrated how he met with some
self claimed Niger Delta Avengers in Oporoza, Gbaramatu Kingdom. We are here to
let the general public know that Niger Delta fraudsters have defrauded the
minister.
“Niger
Delta Avengers can’t stoop so low to send representatives to meet with a common
Minister of Youths and Sports that doesn’t know his work.
“Let
us make this clear, any meeting with Niger Delta Avengers that the
international community is not part of as witness, we will not be part of any
such dialogue,” it said in a press release signed by its spokesperson, Mudoch
Agbinibo.
Further
investigations revealed that none of the
security agencies were aware of the said visit by the minister.
“We
were not aware of the visit by the Minister of Youths and Sports. I should be
in the know if we were informed of the visit,” a senior military officer at 3rd
Battalion, Effurun said.
The
Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, Celestina Kalu, a Superintendent
of Police (SP), said she was also not aware of the visit while a senior officer
of the Department of State Services (DSS) claimed ignorance of any meeting
between the minister and the Avengers.
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