The Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate blew up the Afiesere-Ekiugbo delivery line in Ughelli, said to be operated by the NPDC/Shoreline on Sunday, while threatening to also target pipelines operated by First Hydrocarbon, NPDC, Seplat, Total E&P, Shell, Agip, Saipem, Mobil and others.
According to a statement signed by the group spokesman, Aldo Agbalaja, and obtained by SaharaReporters, the group sabotaged the pipeline on Sunday at about 11:30 p.m.
In a mocking tone, the group told the Chief of Army Staff, General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, to continue to ‘allow his crocodile to smile,’ warning that his ‘time for reckoning’ is at hand.
The group’s statement reads in part as follows:
“The Operation Crocodile Tears is not slowing down, but determined to achieve its target. Until the federal government takes the proper steps, this song will continue to play. This is to once again emphasize our earlier revelation that the so-called Operation Crocodile Smile is nothing but a scam, some jumbled job, sewn together to retire some recently embezzled military budget.
“Were it a serious endeavor, as the entire military system has sought to bamboozle Nigerians and the entire world into believing, the half-baked operation would have at least been reaping marginal results, not those wrong arrests, lacking in intelligence, that it had realized. This is to you, Gen. Buratai, let your crocodile continue to smile, your time for reckoning is at hand, probably by the time the smiley crocodile finally sinks, you will see its tears and blood.
“Under your nose, the very task of guarding oil assets (which we consider a waste of time, resources and a failure of priorities) will fail because you are both insincere and incompetent. The Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate is just starting; you are yet to see what we are about. By the time the alpha operations are initiated, you will need more than these fighter jets to keep your troops safe in any part of the Niger Delta.
“To the oil and gas companies: We have observed that you have placed your trust in the guns and fighter jets of the Nigerian armed forces. Our words for you are few: keep at it and wait for your rewards, which have almost come upon you. It is a reflection of your minds towards our people. You obviously don’t believe that the people of these parts are undeserving of good lives. You hide behind the guns of the oppressors to pillage our lands and our people, leaving us despoiled and our lands raped.
“You do all manners of things you will dare not imagine in other parts of the world where you operate. Here you have failed all basic corporate social responsibilities, leaving the people to languish in lack and ruins. Continue with your insolence against our people, but we vow to you today that we shall uproot every asset and facility you think you have secured with soldiers and their guns,” the group stated.
