Don’t test us, Avengers warn as they strike Chevron pipelines

The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), claims its members had successfully carried out an attack in the early hours of Tuesday, destroying Chevron’s export pipelines to the Escravos offshore in Delta State, a major export terminal in the region.

This is coming on the heels of a planned meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and the Niger Delta elders, including other stakeholders, billed for Tuesday in Abuja.

A statement issued by one Brig. General Mundoch Aginibo, as the spokesman of the NDA, said the strike took place at about 3:45am on Tuesday.

It reads: “Our strike team 06 took this action to further warn all IOCs that when we warn that there should be no repairs pending negotiation/dialogue with the people of the Niger Delta, NDA means there should be no repairs.

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“Any attempt to use dialogue to distract us so as to allow the free flow of our oil will halt the dialogue process.”

Observers said this is the second heavy damage on export crude pipelines, leading to Escravos terminal after a similar action was recorded in July 2016, when at 3am to 5am the Avengers blew up Nembe 1, 2, 3 and Tebedaba brass trunk-line in Bayelsa and River states, also belonging to Chevron.

It is feared that the attack might lead to Chevron declaring force majeure for crude supply in November 2016.

While government officials said they were yet to be properly briefed on the development, they however stated that the proposed meeting between the elders and the Presidency would still hold as scheduled.

By Emma Eke….

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