Rivers based militant group, name, “Bayan-men” on Tuesday night blew up oil facility belonging to the Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) located at Obosi area of Omoku,/Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The militant group had earlier issued a 24-hour ultimatum to Agip oil to meet their demands or have their facilities attacked.
This is the second time two weeks and source said, there was a similar attack on Agip oil facilities which the company was still battling to put off before Tuesday’s attack.
The “Bayan-men” have claimed responsibility for attacking the multinational oil facility, vowing to carry out more of the attacks if justice wasn’t carried out for the people of Niger Delta region.
The attack was confirmed in a statement by the militant’s commander who identified himself as General Agaba on Wednesday.
The statement cited non-engagement of Omoku communities as one of the reason, the attack was carried out.
“The action we carried out yesterday (Tuesday) as a result of Agip’s failure to comply with the 24 hours ultimatum we gave to them to engage our people on how to commence dealing directly with individual communities other than through individuals.
“We are not criminals, we are intellectuals. The fact is that when a man is pushed to the wall, he bounces back with double force. We are giving Agip another seven days to open windows of negotiation with the 27 communities of Omoku clan.
“This meeting will involve the chiefs of these communities, the Community Development Committee (VDC), chairmen of the Communities and the Youths Presidents of the 27 communities. That is how we want it.
“We don’t want it in anybody’s parlour, we want it at the Civic Centre where everybody will come. The reason we want to soft-pedal now is because the appeals from different quarters and our Nchaka festival that is coming up in Sunday. We don’t want anything to affect our festival.”
“We are surprised at the level of interference by the military and DSS who are in charge of the federal government facility. They are supposed to maintain law and order.
The militant group frowned at military intervention against the Federal government’s advice to Oil giant to address requests of communities independently.
The accused security agents of taking sides with Agip oil to oppress the people of Niger Delta.
“They come, take money and subvert justice. What we want is Justice. You can’t come to my community and take the land and leave me hungry. We have heard that Agip has sent military to put out the fire but they have not been able to do that. It is now or never.”
Meanwhile, the River State Police command could not confirm the incident as at the time of filing this report. When contacted through a telephone call, the Spokesman of the Command, SP Nnamdi Omoni simply said: “I am not aware of the incident. Such report has not come to me’.
