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■ Fear of Odi, Zaki Biam invasions grows among the populace
From PAUL OSUYI, Asaba
FEAR has gripped the people of Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South Local Government Area, Delta State, as the heavy military presence continues to grow. Everywhere you look, what confronts the people are fierce looking and gun-wielding soldiers like those at the warfront. Every movement of the people is closely monitored.
The locals are anxious. They are moving out of the riverine kingdom of Gbaramatu in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State in droves, using the 75 horse power engine speedboat, and sometimes local canoe as means of get away.
But the movement is done under heavy security checks at the borders. Gbaramatu Kingdom, one of the biggest and most powerful Ijaw kingdoms is under siege. Recently, it crowned Williams N.S. Ogoba as the 26th Pere (king) of the kingdom
A few days ago, a naval helicopter had flown around the communities that make up Gbaramatu kingdom, taking pictures This action frightened the natives, who mistook the aircraft as an air force plane on a mission to unleash aerial bombardment on them. In fright, the people scampered for safety and ran into the nearby bushes.
The war-like and tense situation in Gbaramatu Kingdom, comprising several oil-bearing communities, came on the heels of the recent sabotage of the Chevron trunk line in Abiteye, Alero, Dibi, Otunana and Makaraba flow stations, which feed a major Chevron tank farm in Escravos, Warri, in what seemed to be fresh wave of hostilities against the Federal Government by Niger Delta militants.
The onslaught on oil facilities was simultaneous. There was a blow up on the recently repaired Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) trunkline supplying crude to both the Warri and Kaduna refineries.
Besides, a pipeline that supplies gas to the Lagos and Abuja electricity plants was equally affected in the seemingly coordinated attacks. The emergent militant group, Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) claimed responsibility for the attacks and threatened to cause more havoc.
But the Chevron Well D25 in Abiteye, a major gas line serving the Abiteye, Alero, Dibi, Otunana and Makaraba flow stations, was the worst affected in the renewed attacks.
The NDA had in February this year, also claimed responsibility for the attack on the Chevron valve platform situated deep offshore around Abiteye, in Warri South West council area.
In the February sabotage and the latest attack earlier this month, Sunday Sun investigation revealed that there was no human casualties because there had not been any exchange of fire between the militants and security operatives.
All the facilities that have been attacked are within Gbaramatu Kingdom and the distance between them is usually not up to three or four kilometers, according to natives of the troubled kingdom.
But the tense atmosphere has obviously affected the psyche of the locals and they are already appealing to the Federal Government to continue to explore the option of dialogue rather than military approach in trying to bring the perpetrators of the economic sabotage to book.
They are apprehensive that if the military approach should be adopted, what happened in Odi and Zaki Biam during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo might just be a tip of the iceberg.
A source in Warri told Sunday Sun correspondent: “The situation is tense, my brother. The locals are anxious, and they have started moving out of the communities for fear of being caught in the crossfire if the military should declare hostilities in an attempt to fish out the militants.
“They are very apprehensive at the moment because in the usual tradition, the militants who are the targets of the military onslaught may not be affected. Where they (militants) are, is different from where the military are presently occupying, and it will be an uphill task to get to them. So, at the end of the day, it is the defenseless women, children and the aged that would be casualties.”
In a statement condemning the recent attack, a group, Coalition of Ijaw Communities in Gbaramatu Kingdom, stated that besides the economic sabotage and environmental degradation, which the perpetrators were causing the Nigerian state and the entire Niger Delta region, the psychological effects on the locals and the immediate environment were enormous.
“Whenever a pipeline is attacked, we become filled with fear. Our people no longer sleep with both eyes closed because of fear of the unknown. So we are appealing to both the perpetrators and the military not to make Gbaramatu a theatre of war again. We are begging the perpetrators of these acts to take the fight somewhere else.”
The statement co-signed by Comrade Christopher Ejoh, Chief Isaiah Ukulor and Chief Felix Ejoh, all of Inikorogha community, called on the military to exercise caution in its bid to track the perpetrators of the heinous act because of residents within the impacted communities, saying that the army should not in any way make innocent natives culprits in the event of military onslaught.
“We are seriously pained by what is going on around Gbaramatu Kingdom and its environs. We condemn these attacks in their entirety and want to appeal to the perpetrators to stay away from our communities.
“Our communities should not be turned battlefield, because we are at peace with the Nigeria Gas Company (NGC) and other multinationals around us. NGC in particular has been of great help to us. The electricity we are enjoying today was provided by them and we have no cause to be in any disagreement with them,” the statement added.
They lamented that the NGC pipelines that were earlier commissioned after their repairs by Ocean Marine Solution, a conglomerate handling pipeline repairs, were among the lines attacked in Inikorogha and Bafan communities respectively.
They described the attacks on oil and gas facilities as inimical to the socio-economic development of the area and counter-productive to the development plans of the Federal Government, and insisted that the continued attack on oil facilities was exposing the locals to military invasion.
Meanwhile, all the facilities so far sabotaged are within the enclave of the fugitive ex-militant leader, Chief Government Ekpemuopolo (Tompolo), thereby fueling speculations that he might be behind the hostilities apparently to dissuade the Federal Government from prosecuting him through the instrumentality of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
But NDA’s spokesman, Murdoch Agbinibo in a statement exonerated Tompolo, saying that the attacks were carried out because of Tompolo’s refusal to apologise to the group after a three-day ultimatum was issued to him.
“This is a clear warning to the all Niger Delta politicians, traditional rulers, community leaders, and the likes of Tompolo to mind their business and leave the liberation of the Niger Delta people to the Avengers.
“Avengers are here on ground, neither you nor the Federal Government can stop us. If you don’t steer clear and let us to carry out our activities we will bring the fight to your individual doorsteps. Our major goal is to cripple the Nigerian economy,” the statement read.
“We are using this medium to ask all Niger Deltans to take the war to all oil installations in their various communities because this is your war,” NDA further urged people of the region.
In the meantime, the recent attack on Chevron’s offshore platform, which serves as a gathering point for production from several fields has caused the oil giant to shut down operations and is currently losing about 90,000 barrels a day of output.
The oil firm said it had shut down its Okan offshore facility after it was “breached by unknown persons. It added that it had sent resources to respond to the resulting spill. The Okan facility feeds crude and gas into Escravos export facility and is jointly owned by Chevron and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC.
An earlier attack on a pipeline feeding the Forcados terminal, which exports about 200,000 barrels per day, had forced Royal Dutch Shell Plc to declare a force majeure last February, with repair works on the pipeline expected to be completed this month while the facility may resume operation from next month.
The implication is that the recent disruptions have now pushed the nation’s crude production to the lowest in 20 years. Before the recent attack, its production had fallen below 1.7 million barrels per day for the first time since 1994 and effectively removed Nigeria from its position as Africa’s largest oil producer.
