ASABA- ANOTHER militant group, Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate, NDGJM, has
emerged with a threat to bring down the Refinery in Eleme, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Warri
Refinery and the Utorogun gas plant in Otu-Jeremi in Ughelli South Local Government Area,
Delta State in few days should the federal government fail to listen to them.
Issuing 48 hours to oil
multinationals still in
the upland of the
region, especially in
the Ogba/Egi axis of
Rivers state, Urhobo/
Isoko/Ndokwa axis of
Delta state and other
upland oil producing
areas to evacuate
their personnel, they
decried that all the
people of the upland
Niger Delta, under
whose watch the
largest and most critical oil assets are located, have been ignored over the years as
government and the oil companies pander to every whim and cough of those who have
violently engaged the state.
The group in a statement by its Spokesman, self-styled Gen. Aldo Agbalaja said: "We have
keenly watched developments in the country in recent times, developments that are most
depressing, very much depicting the marginalization and subjugation of the hapless people of
our region.
"We have thought very deeply about the ongoing shenanigan and play-acting going on
between the federal government and some self-styled ‘Niger Delta agitators’ and thought if we
fail to make our own statement now, then there will be no future for the larger Niger Delta
region".
Continuing in the statement, he said; "for the avoidance of doubts, the Niger Delta Greenland
Justice Mandate is not in the mold of the various criminal gangs that have so far paraded
themselves as fighting for the interest of the people of the Niger Delta, but who indeed have
been engaged in fight for personal enrichment.
"We are not one of them. We are out to tell the world that there is a Niger Delta that is made
up of many tribes and tongues, the people of whom have so far suffered both local and
national oppression.
"We have come at this point to ensure that our oppressors, being the federal government, the
state governments in the six core Niger Delta states who have received billions of dollars over
the past years but have brought little or no development to the region and the so-called
super-ethnic nations, who have yielded to greed and wickedness and have exposed the rest of
us in the oil-rich, but deeply impoverished region, to crippling squalor".
Explaining that the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate is a coalition of forces across the
Niger Delta region, fighting for the interest of the region, Agbalaja said, "Federal government
and the oil multinational companies have been making a very grave mistake by equating the
interest of the Ijaw people as that of all the tribes of the region. Indeed, this is a mistake that
is about to take a more devastating toll than has ever been seen or experienced in the history
of Nigeria.
"Any moment from now, we shall be making a loud statement which we believe should be
loud enough for all to see and take seriously and then afterwards state our demands.
"We have considered this 'coming statement' reluctantly inevitable because of the
recalcitrance of federal authorities, as well as oil giants; they both have decided to ignore
calls to reason and have made violence the only option.
"Just as in the 2009 experience, the federal government and oil companies have started yet
another round of negotiation with the Ijaw front, in the name of all the people of the Niger
Delta. This will not work. Since they do not regard the assets in our areas important enough
to be protected, we shall root them all out of the length of the Niger Delta. We don’t want to
make this mistake any longer, violence pays as it has become the only voice that government
gives hearkens to.
"Finally, we are asking all the oil multinationals still in the upland of our region; AGIP, TOTAL,
SHELL, MOBIL, SHORELINES, NECONDE, E.D WESTERN, SEPLAT and others to commence the
evacuation of their personnel from the region, especially in the Ogba/Egi axis of Rivers state,
Urhobo/Isoko/Ndokwa axis of Delta state and other upland oil producing areas, within the next
48 hours.
"We also want to bring it to the attention of the federal government and the NNPC that the
refineries in Warri (Urhobo land) and Port Harcourt (Eleme) and the gas plant in Otorogun will
all come down in few days from now.
"We just hope that the Nigerian government will continue ignoring us so that we can perfect
what those in the riverine area started".
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