President Muhammadu Buhari has reiterated his resolve to deal with those involved in blowing up oil installations in the Niger Delta region, assuring that such persons and their sponsors would be punished, disclosing that he had ordered service chiefs to get the perpetrators.
Buhari, who spoke on the side-line of his London meeting, said: โWhat I know is that I was elected by the whole country and the least I can do is to keep the country together somehow. I assure you we will develop the capacity to do it. โIf you can recall, I appointed a retired Brigadier General (Boroh).
โWhen I give people assignment, I develop terms of reference for them and I allow them to do their work. I understand the problem. I spoke with the Chief of Naval Staff and other service chiefs to work with him and help him to make sure that those who are blowing the installations, sabotaging investments in Nigeria, we will deal with them eventually.โ
On whether his government has reneged on the amnesty programme, Buhari said: โThey are saying that the agreement on amnesty, including payment and training and employment were not being met. These are their allegations. So, we put this officer who is from there to revisit the agreement and get them and see which part of the agreement the Federal Government needs to fulfilโ.
โThe fundamental thing is that we have to secure Nigeria before we can manage it efficiently. I assure you that we are going to do that. Try and develop confidence in our ability to do it eventually.โ
Meanwhile, a new militant group, Red Egbesu Water Lions, has surfaced in the Niger Delta region, just as suspected militants, Tuesday night, blew up the Sagbama-Tuomo gas line, belonging to Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC, at Egbembiri, Southern Ijaw local government area of Bayelsa State .
The Red Egbesu Water Lions Demanded the release of Nnamdi Kanu, Dasuki, defreeze of Tompoloโs bank accounts just as security source, who confirmed the explosion, said: โEgbembiri is a border town between Bayelsa and Delta states. They destroyed the Ayama section of the Ogboinbiri-Tuomo gas pipeline with dynamites at about 9.00 pm on Tuesday. That line was earlier repaired, last week and again vandalized.โ
โWe, however, suspect that the dispute over the surveillance contract led to the attack. The Agip pipeline links major oil facilities in Delta and Bayelsa States,โ he added.
The new militant group in a statement by its Creek Network Coordinator, โGeneralโ Torunanawei Latei, said it was teaming up with the Niger Delta Avengers and Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, โIt issued the Federal Government a seven-day ultimatum to release Nnamdi Kanu, former National Security Adviser, NSA, Sambo Dasuki and direct EFCC to defreeze the bank accounts of ex-militant leader, Government Ekpemupol, alias Tompoloโ
They threatened to shut down all oil exploration activities in the Niger Delta at the expiration of the ultimatum, the group also demanded โunconditional immediate payment to victims of the Bonga Oil Spill and Chevron gas explosion in Koluama, Bayelsa state.
โIt is extremely important to note that the engine room of the national interest is the executive obedience to court orders, protection and preservation of citizensโ constitutional liberties. Justification of executive disobedience to court orders as a protection of national interest is abominable.
โThis is a deliberate ploy to bend the law and suspend the 1999 Constitution. We ask, does President Muhammadu Buhari have any legal capacity to declare anyone as a criminal? Disobedience to court orders is an act of executive rascality in the country,โ the group added.
