The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to fish out the real persons bombing oil pipelines in the region.
The IYC spokesman, Eric Omare, who made this call in Yenagoa on Monday, strongly condemned “the noxious activities of a new militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA),” saying that there was no reason for them to embark on destruction of oil facilities and pollution of the region’s environment.
The new militant group had claimed responsibility for the recent attacks on the SPDC platform at Forcados, the Chevron Okan platform at Abiteye in Escravos, and the pipelines transporting crude oil to the Warri and the Kaduna refineries.
However, Omare believed that the destruction of oil facilities was not the way forward for the region.
He said, “We do not see the justification in the Niger Delta Avengers embarking on destruction of oil facilities because Chief Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, denounced the group.
“I think Tompolo did the proper thing by coming out to inform the entire world that he was not part of the NDA when there were insinuations to the effect that he was behind them.
“As with other cases of attack on oil facilities, the Niger Delta environment and people are the ultimate victims and would suffer from these latest attacks. The IYC believes that irrespective of their grievances, there are better ways of expressing them rather than contributing to the further destruction of the already massively degraded Niger Delta environment.
“The security agencies should go after the real culprits and not innocent communities and people in the region. From our experience, the security personnel in a bid to impress their superiors and justify the huge amount of money budgeted for the purpose, always attack innocent communities and people.
“This must not be allowed to happen this time around. We would also advise the Federal Government to be prompt in directing security agencies to deal with insurgent groups all over the country including the Fulani herdsmen who have been killing innocent Nigerians just like they have just directed in respect of the Niger Delta Avengers.”
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